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I -II 



METHODS 



OF 



HISTORICAL STUDY 



"Das "Wesen der historischen llethode ist forschcnd zu verstehen. — Droysen." 

"The way to that which is general is through that which is special." — Yager. 

"It is a favorite maxim of mine that history, while it should be scientific in its method, 
Bhould pursue a practical object." — Seeley. 

"Das was heute Politik ist, gehort morgen der Geschichte an."— Z>royscn. 

" Learn the Past and you will know the Future." — Confucius, 

"C'est une vOrite banale que I'etude de I'histoire est indispensable aux peuples libres, 
appeles i, se gouverner eux-m6mes. La connaissance du pass6 fait seule bien comprendre 
le present et aide 5 6viter les ecucils sur lesquels nos aneOtres ont fait naufrage. En 
relevant I'enseignemeut supCricur de I'histoire, on ne rendrait pas seulement service d 
la science, mais aussi S la patrie." — Paul Frtdericq. 

"Scieniiapro Pa/ria."— Motto of the Socieli Hislorique et Cercle Saini-Simon, Paris. 



JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES 



IN 

Historical and Political Science 

HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor 



History is past Politics and Politics present History — Freeman 



SECOND SERIES 
I -II 

METHODS 

OF 

HISTORICAL STUDY 



By HERBERT B. MADAMS, Ph. D. 



BALTIMORE 

N. Murray, Publication Agent, Johns Hopkins University 

January and February, 1884 






JOHN MURPHT & CO., PRIKTERS, 
BALTIMORE. 



I. 

Special Methods of Historical Study' 

AS PUESUED AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
AND AT SMITH COLLEGE. 



The main principle of historical training at the Johns 
Hopkins University is to encourage independent thought 
and research. Little heed is given to text-books, or the mere 
phraseology of history, but all stress is laid upon clear and 
original statements of fact and opinion, whether the student's 
own or the opinion of a consulted author. The comparative 
method of reading and study is followed by means of assign- 
ing to individual members of the class separate topics, with 
references to various standard works. These topics are duly 
reported upon by the appointees, either ex tempore, with the 
aid of a few notes, or in formal papers, which are discussed 



^ This article contains extracts from a paper on " History : Its Place in 
American Colleges," originally contributed in October, 1879, to The Alumnus, 
a literary and educational quarterly then published in Philadelphia, but 
now suspended and entirely out of print. A few extracts have also been 
made from an article on " Co-operation in University work," in the second 
number of The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political 
Science. But the body of the article is new, and was written at the request 
of Dr. G. Stanley Hall, as a contribution to the "Methods of History," 
Vol. I. of the Pedagogical Library, Boston : Ginn, Heath & Co., 1883. By 
the kind permission of the publishers, the chapter is here reproduced in 
connection with a paper on " New Methods of Study in Plistory," which is 
now for the first time printed, but which is the natural outgrovrth of the 
original paper and, like that, suggested by Dr. G. Stanley Hall, for ped;i- 
gogical purposes. 

5 



6 Special Methods of Historical Study, 

at length by the class. The oral method has been found to 
afford a better opportunity than essays for question and dis- 
cussion, and it is in itself a good means of individual training, 
for the student thereby learns to think more of substance than 
of form. Where essays are written, more time is usually 
expended on style than on the acquisition of facts. If the 
student has a well-arranged brief, like a lawyer's, and a head 
full of ideas, he will express himself at least intelligibly, and 
clearness and elegance will come with sufficient practice. The 
ex tempore method, with a good brief or abstract (which may 
be dictated to the class) is one of the best methods for the 
teacher as well as for the student. The idea should be, in 
both cases, to personify historical science in the individual 
who is speaking upon a given topic. A book or an essay, 
however symmetrical it may be, is often only a fossil, a life- 
less thing ; but a student or teacher talking from a clear head 
is a fountain of living science. A class of bright minds 
quickly discern the difference between a phrase-maker and a 
man of ideas. 

As an illustration of the kind of subjects in mediaeval his- 
tory studied in 1878, independently of any text-book, by a 
class of undergraduates, from eighteen to twenty-two years 
of age, the following list of essay -topics is appended : — 



1. Influence of Roman Law during the middle ages. (Savigny, Sir Henry 

Maine, Giiizot, Hadley). 

2. Tlie kingdom of Theodoric, the East Goth. (Milman, Gibbon, Free- 

man). 

3. The conversion of Germany. (^lerivale, Milman, Trench). 

4. Tlie conversion of England. (Bede, Milman, Freeman, ^lontalembert, 

Trench). 

5. The civilizing influence of the Benedictine Monks. (Montalembert, 

Gibbon, Milman). 

6. Cloister and cathedral schools. (Einhard, Guizot, Mullinger), 

7. The origin and character of medij^val universities. (Green, History of 

England ; Lacroix ; various university histories). 

8. Modes of legal procedure among the early Teutons. (AVaitz, J. L. 

Laughlin, Lea). 

9. Report of studies in "Anglo-Saxon Law." (Hem^y Adams, et cd). 



I 



special Methods of Historical Study. 7 

10. Origin of Feudalism. Feudal rights, aids, and incidents. (Guizot, 

Hallam, Stubbs, Digby, Maine, Waitz, Eoth). 

11. Evils of Feudalism. (Authorities as above). 

12. Benefits of Feudalism. (As above). 

13. The Saxon Witenagemot and its historical relation to the House of 

Lords. (Freeman, Stubbs, Hallam, Guizot). 

14. Origin of the House of Commons. (Pauli, Creighton, and authorities 

above stated). 

15. Origin of Communal Liberty. (Hegel, Stiidteverfassung von Italien ; 

Testa, Communes of Lombardv ; Wauters, Les libertes communales ; 
Stubbs, Freeman, Guizot, et al). 

At Smith College, an institution founded at IN'orthampton, 
Massachusetts, by a generous woman, in the interest of the 
higher education of her sex, the study of history was pursued 
by four classes in regular gradation, somewhat after the col- 
lege model. The First, corresponding to the " Freshman ^' 
class, studied oriental or ante-classic history, embracing the 
Stone Age, Egypt, Palestine, Phoenicia, the empires of Meso- 
potamia and ancient India. This course was pursued in 1879 
by dictations and ex tempore lectures on the part of the teacher, 
and by independent reading on the part of the pupils. The 
first thing done by the teacher in the introduction to the 
history of any of the above-mentioned countries, was to explain 
the sources from which the history of that country was derived, 
and then to characterize briefly the principal literary works 
relating to it, not omitting historical novels, like Ebers' 
^' Egyptian Princess," or " Uarda." Afterwards, the salient 
features, in Egyptian history, for example, were presented by 
the instructor, under distinct heads, such as geography, reli- 
gion, art, literature, and chronology. Map-drawing by and 
before the class was insisted upon ; and, in connection with 
the foregoing subjects, books or portions of books were recom- 
mended for private reading. For instance, on the " Geog- 
raphy of Egypt," fifty pages of Herodotus were assigned in 
Rawlinson's translation. This, and other reading, was done 
in the so-called "Reference Library," which was provided 
with all the books that were recommended. An oral account 



8 Special Methods of Histoi^ical Study. 

of such reading was sooner or later demanded from each pupil 
by the instructor, and fresh points of information were thus 
continually brought out. The amount of positive fact acquired 
by a class of seventy-five bright young women bringing 
together into one focus so many individual rays of knowledge, 
collected from the best authorities, is likely to burn to ashes 
the dry bones of any text-book, and to keep the instructor at 
a white heat. 

As an illustration of the amount of reading done in one 
term of ten weeks by this class of beginners in history, the 
following fair specimen of the lists handed in at the end of 
the academic year of 1879 is appended. The readmg was of 
course by topics : — 

EGYPT. 

Unity of History (Freeman). 

Geography (Herodotus). 

Gods of Egypt (J. Freeman Clarke). 

Manners and Customs (Wilkinson). 

Upper Egypt (Klunzinger). 

Art of Egypt (Liibke). 

Hypatia (Kingsley). 

Egyptian Princess (Ebers). « 

PALESTI^^:. 

Sinai and Palestine, 40 pages (Stanley). 
History of the Jews (extracts from Josephus). 
The Beginnings of Christianity, Chap. Vll. (Fisher), 
lleligion of the Hebrews (J. Freeman Clarke). 

PHOENICIA, ASSYRIA, ETC. 

Phoenicia, 50 pages (Kenrick). 
Assyrian Discoveries (George Smith). 
Chaldean Account of Genesis (George Smith). 
Assyrian Architecture (Fcrgusson). 
Art of Central Asia (Liibke). 

In tlio Second, or ^SSophomorc " class, classic history was 
pui'sued by means of the History Primers of Greece and 



Special Methods of Historical Study. 9 

Eome^ supplemented bv lectures and dictations, as the time 
would allow. The Junior class studied mediaeval history in 
much the same way, by text-books (the Epoch Series) and 
by lectures. Both classes did excellent Avork of its kind, but 
it was not the best kind ; for little or no stimulus was given 
to original research. And yet, perhaps, to an outsider, fond 
of old-fashioned methods of recitation, these classes would 
have appeared better than the First class. They did harder 
work, but it was less spontaneous and less scientific. The 
fault was a fault of method. 

With the Senior class the method described as in use at the 
Johns Hopkins University was tried with marked success. 
With text-books on modern history as a guide for the whole 
class, the plan was followed out of assigning to individuals 
subjects with references for private reading and for an oral 
report of about fifteen minutes^ length. The class took notes 
on these reports or informal student-lectures as faithfully as 
on the extended remarks and more formal lectures of the 
instructor. This system of making a class lecture to itself 
is, of course, very unequal in its immediate results, and some- 
times unsatisfactory ; but, as a system of individual training 
for advanced pupils, it is valuable as a means both of culture 
and of discipline. Contrast the good to the individual student 
of any amount of mere text-book memorizing or idle note- 
taking Avith the positive culture and wide acquaintance with 
books, derived in ten iveehs from such a rano^e of reading as is 
indicated in the following bond fide report, by one member of 
the Senior class (1879), who afterwards was a special student 
of history for two years in the " Annex '' at Harvard College, 
and who in 1881 returned to Smith Colleo^e for her decree of 
Ph. D. First are given the subjects assigned to this young 
woman for research, and the reading done by her in prepara- 
tion for report to the class ; and then is given the list of her 
general reading in connection Avith the class work of the term. 
Other members of the class had other subjects and similar 
reports : — 
2 



10 special Metliods of Historical Study. 

I. — SUBJECTS FOR RESEARCH. 

1. Anfielm and JRo.^ceUinus. 

^lilman's Latin Christianity, Vol. IV., pp. 190-225. 
Ueberweg's History of Philosophy, Vol. I., pp. 271-385. 

2. Platonic Academy at Florence. 

Koscoe's Life of Lorenzo di Medici, Vol. I., p. 30 ct seq. 
Burckhardt's Renaissance, Vol. I. 
Villari's Machiavelli, Vol. I., p. 205 et seq. 

3. Colet. 

Seebohm's Oxford Reformers. 

4. Ccdvin. 

Fisher's History of the Reformation (Calvin). 

Spalding's History of the Reformation (Calvin). 

D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, \o\. I., book 2, chap. 7. 

5. Frederick the Great. 

Macaulay's Essay on Frederick the Great. 
Lowell's Essay on Frederick the Great. 
Ency. Brit. Article on Frederick the Great. 
^Icnzcl's History of Crermany (Frederick the Great). 
Carlyle's Frederick the Great (parts of Vols. I., IL, III.). 

6. Randta of the French. Revolution. 
French Revolution (Epoch Series). 

II. — GENERAL READING. 

Roscoe's Life of Leo X. (one-half of Vol. I.). 

Mrs. Oliphant's Makers of Florence (on cathedral builders, Savonarola, 
a Private Citizx'n, Michel Angelo). 

Symonds's Renaissance (Savonarola). 

"Walter Pater's Renaissance (Leonardo da Vinci). 

Hallam's Middle Ages (on Italian Rejniblics). 

Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiogra])hy (about one-lialf). 

Burckhardt's Renaissance (nearly all). 

Vasari's Lives of the Painters (da Vinci, Alberti). 

Lowell's Essay on Dante. 

Carlyle's Essay on Dante. 

Trench's Mcdiii'val Church History (Great Councils of the West, IIuss 
and Bohemia, Eve of the Reformation). 

Fisher's History of the Reformation (Luther). 

"White's Eighteen Christian Centuries (l(ith). 

Macaulay's Essjiy on Ranke's History of the Popes. 

Ix'cky's Eurofjean Morals (last cliaptcr). 

Seeliohm's ICra of the Protestant Kcvolution. 

Fronde's Short Studies on Great Subjects (studies on the times of Eras- 
mus and Luther, the Dissolution of the Monasteries). 

Si)alding's History of the Reformation ((•hai)ter on J^uther). 



Special Methods of Historkcil Study. 11 

Carlyle's Essay on Luther and Knox. 

Hosmer's German Literature (chapters on Luther, Thirty Years' War, 

Minnesingers and Mastersingers). 
Gardiner's Thirty Years' War. 
Morris's Age of Anne. 
George Eliot's Eomola (about one-half.) 
Hawthorne's Marble Faun (parts). 

It is but fair to say in reference to this vast amount of 
reading, that it represents the chief work done by the above- 
mentioned young lady during the summer term, for her class 
exercises were mainly lectures requiring little outside study. 
The list will serve not merely as an illustration of Senior 
work in history at Smith College, but also as an excellent 
guide for a course of private reading on the Renaissance and 
Reformation. ]^o more interesting or profitable course can be 
followed than a study of the Beginnings of Modern History. 
With Symonds's works on the '^ Renaissance in Italy," Burck- 
hardt's " Civilization of the Period of the Renaissance " 
(English translation), and Seebohm's " Era of the Protestant 
Revolution " (Epoch series) for guide-books, a college instruc- 
tor can indicate to his pupils lines of special investigation 
more grateful than text-book " cramming,'^ more inspiring 
than lectures or dictations. The latter, though good to a 
certain extent, become deadening to a class when its members 
are no lono-er stimulated to oris^inal research, but sink back 
in passive reliance upon the authority of the lecturer. That 
method of teaching history which converts bright young 
pupils into note-taking machines is a bad method. It is the 
construction of a poor text-book at the expense of much val- 
uable time and youthful energy. Goethe satirized this, the 
fault of German academic instruction, in Mephistopheles' 
counsfel to the student, who is advised to study well his notes, 
in order to see that the professor says nothing which he hasn't 
said alreadv : — 

Damit ihr nachher besser seht, 
Dass er niclits sagt, als was im Buche steht ; 
Doch euch des Schreibens ja befleisst, 
Als dictirt' euch der Heilig' Geist ! 



12 Special JIdhods of Historical Study. 

The simple-minded student assents to this counsel, and says 
it is a great comfort to have everything in black and white, 
so that he can carry it all home. But no scrap-book of facts 
can give Avisdom, any more than a tank of water can form 
a running spring. It is, perhaps, of as much consequence to 
teach a young person how to study history as to teach him 
historv itself. 



The above notes were written in the summer of 1879, and 
were published in October of that year, after the author's 
return to Baltimore. Subsequent experience at Smith College, 
in the spring terms of 1880 and 1881, when the lecturer's 
four years' partial connection with Smith College terminated, 
showed the necessity of a reference library for each class, the 
resources of the main collection in the reading-room having 
proved inadequate to the growing historical needs of the 
college. Instead of buying text-books, the members of each 
class, with the money which text-books would have cost, 
formed a library fund, frojn which a book committee pur- 
chased such standard works (often with duplicate copies) as 
the lecturer recommended. The class libraries were kept in 
places generally accessible ; for example, in the front halls of 
the " cottage " dormitories. Each class had its own system 
of rules for library administration. Books that were in 
greatest demand could be kept out only one or two days. 
The amount of reading by special topics accomplished in this 
way in a single term was really most remarkable. Note- 
books with abstracts of daily work were kept, and finally 
handed in as a part of the term's examination. Oral exami- 
nations ui)on reading, pursued in connection with the lectures, 
were maintained throughout the term, and, at the close, a 
written examination upon the lectures and other required 
topics, togetlicr with a certain range of optional subjects, 
fairly tested the results of this voluntary method of his- 
torical study. The amount of knowledge acquired in this 



Special Methods of Historical Study. 13 

wav would as much surpass the substance of any system of 
lectures or any mere text-book acquisitions as a class library 
of standard historians surpasses an individual teacher or any 
historical manual. This method of study is practicable in 
any high-school class of moderate size. If classes are gen- 
erous, they will leave their libraries to successors, who can 
thus build up a collection for historical reference within the 
school itself, which will thus become a seminary of living 
science. 

A development of the above idea of special libraries may 
be seen in the foundation, at the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity, in 1881-2, of a special library for the study of American 
Institutional History by college graduates. There was nothing 
really new about the idea except its application. German 
universities have their seminarium libraries distinct from the 
main university library, although often in the same building. 
In Baltimore, the special library was established in the lecture- 
room where the class meets. The design of the collection was 
to gather within easy reach the chief authorities used in class 
work and in such original investigations as were then in 
progress. The special aim, however, was to bring together 
the statutory law and colonial archives of the older States of 
the Union, together with the journals of Congress, American 
State papers, and the writings and lives of American states- 
men. The statutes of England and 23arliamentary reports on 
subjects of particular interest were next secured. Then fol- 
lowed, in December, 1882, the acquisition of the Bluntschli 
Library of three thousand volumes, with many rare pamphlets 
and Bluntschli's manuscripts, including his notes taken under 
Niebuhr the historian, and under Savigny the jurist. This 
library of the lamented Dr. Bluntschli, professor of constitu- 
tional and international law in Heidelberg, was presented to 
the Johns Hopkins University by German citizens of Balti- 
more ; and it represents, not only in its transfer to America, 
but in its very constitution, the internationality of modern 
science. Here is a library, which, under the care of a great 



14 Special JIdhods of Historical Stitdi/. . 

master, developed from the narroAv chronicles of a Swiss town 
and canton into a library of cosmopolitan character, embracing 
many nations in its scope. Into this inheritance the Seminary 
Library of American Institutional History has now entered. 
Although the special work of the Seminary will still be 
directed toward American themes, yet it will be from the 
vantage-ground of the Bluntschli Library, and Avith the 
knowledge that this great collection was the outgrowth of 
communal studies similar to those now in progress in Balti- 
more. 

xi word may be added in this connection touching the nature 
of graduate-work in history at the Johns Hopkins University. 
A\ hat was said in the early part of this article applied only to 
undergraduates, who develop into the very best class of grad- 
uate students now present at the University. The idea of a 
co-operative study of American local institutions, by graduate 
students representing different sections of country, evolved 
very naturally from the Baltimore environment. Germinant 
interest in the subject originated in a study of New England 
towns, in a spring sojourn for four years at Smith College, 
Northampton, Mass., and in summer ♦tours along the New 
England coast ; but the development of this interest was made 
possible by associations in Baltimore with men from the South 
and the A^^est, who were able and willing to describe the insti- 
tutions of their own States for purposes of comparison with the 
institutions of other States. Thus it has come a!)out that the 
l)arishcs, districts, and counties of Maryland, Virginia, and 
the Carolinas are placed historically side by side with the 
t(»\viishi[)s of the West and the towns and ])arishes of New 
England; so that, by and by, all men will see how much 
these ditierent sections have in common. 

There is a great variety of subjects pertaining to American 
local life in its rural and municipal manifestations. Not only 
tlic history of local government, but the history of schools, 
churclies, charities, manufactures, industries, prices, economics, 
municipal protection, municipal reforms, local taxation, reprc- 



Special IfetJiods of Historical Study. 15 

sentation, administration, poor laws, liquor laws, labor laws, 
and a thousand and one chapters of legal and social history 
are yet to be written in every State. Johns Hopkins students 
have selected only a few topics like towns, parishes, manors, 
certain state systems of free schools, a few phases of city 
government, a few French and Indian villages in the JSTorth- 
west, certain territorial institutions, Canadian feudalism, the 
town institutions of New England (to a limited extent) ; but 
there is left historical territory enough for student immigra- 
tion throughout the next hundred years. The beauty of 
science is that there are always new worlds to discover. And 
at the present moment there await the student pioneer vast 
tracts of American institutional and economic history almost 
as untouched as were once the forests of America, her coal 
measures and prairies, her mines of iron, silver, and gold. 
Individual and local effort will almost everywhere meet with 
quick recognition and grateful returns. But scientific and 
cosmopolitan relations with college and university centres, 
together with the generous co-operation of all explorers in 
the same field, will certainly yield the most satisfactory results 
both to the individual and to the community which he repre- 
sents. 

It is highly important that isolated students who desire to 
co-operate in this kind of work should avail themselves of 
the existing machinery of local libraries, the local press, local 
societies, and local clubs. If such things do not exist, the 
most needful should be created. No community is too small 
for a book club and for an association of some sort. Local 
studies should always be connected in some way with the life 
of the community, and should always be used to quicken that 
life to higher consciousness. A student, a teacher, who pre- 
pares a paper on local history or some social question, should 
read it before the village lyceum or some literary club or an 
association of teachers. If encouraged to believe his work 
of any general interest or permanent value, he should print 
it in the local paper or in a local magazine, perhaps an educa- 



16 Special Methods of Historical Study, 

tional journal, without aspiring to the highest popular month- 
lies, which will certainly reject all purely local contributions 
by unknown contributors. It is far more practicable to 
publish by local aid in pamphlet form or in the proceedings 
of associations and learned societies, before Avhich such papers 
may sometimes be read. 

From a variety of considerations, the writer is persuaded 
that one of the best introductions to history that can be given 
in American high schools, and even in those of lower.grade, 
is through a study of the community in which the school is 
placed. History, like charity, begins at home. The best 
American citizens are those who mind home affairs and local 
interests. " That man's the best cosmopolite who loves his 
native country best." The best students of universal history 
are those who know some one country or some one subject 
Avell. The family, the hamlet, the neighborhood, the com- 
munity, the parish, the village, town, city, county, and state 
are historically the ways by which men have approached 
national and international life. It was a preliminary study 
of the geography of Frankfort-on-the-Main that led Carl 
Hitter to study the physical structure of Europe and Asia, 
and thus to establish the new science of comparative gcog- 
ra])hy. He says : *' Whoever has Avandercd through the 
valleys and woods, and over the hills and mountains of his 
own state, will be the one capable of following a Herodotus 
in his wanderings over the globe.'' And we may say, as 
liitter said of the science of geography, the first step in 
history is to know thoroughly the district where we live. 
In America, (iuyot represented for many years this method 
of teaching geography. Huxley, in his Physiography, has 
introduced ])upils to a study of Nature as a whole, by calling 
attention to the physical features of the Thames valley and 
the wide range of natural phenomena that may be observed 
in any English ])arish. Humboldt long ago said in his 
Cosmos: 'M^^very little nook and shaded corner is but a 
reflection of the whole of Nature." There is something 



Special Methods of Historical Study. 17 

very suggestive and very quickeniDg in a pliilosoj^liy cf Nature 
and history which regards every spot of the earth's surface, 
every pebble, every form of organic life, from the lowest 
mollusk to the highest phase of human society, as a perfect 
microcosm, perhaps an undiscovered world of suggestive truth. 
But it is important to remember that all these things should 
be studied in their widest relations. Xatural history is of no 
significance if viewed apart from Man. Human history is 
without foundation if separated from Xature. The deeds of 
men, the genealogy of families, the annals of quiet neighbor- 
hoods, the records of towns, states, and nations are per se of 
little consequence to history miless in some way these isolated 
things are brought into vital connection with the progress 
and science of the world. To establish such connections is 
sometimes like the discovery of unknown lands, the explora- 
tion of new countries, and the widening of the world's 
horizon. 

American local history should be studied as a contribu- 
tion to national history. This country will yet be viewed 
and reviewed as an organism of historic growth, developing 
from minute germs, from the very protoplasm of state life. 
And some day this country will be studied in its international 
relations, as an organic part of a larger organism now vaguely 
called the World State, but as surely developing through the 
operation of economic, legal, social, and scientific forces as the 
American Union, the German and British Empires are evolv- 
ing into higher forms. American history in its widest rela- 
tions is not to be written by any one man nor by any one 
generation of men. Our history will grow with the nation 
and with its developing consciousness of internationality. 
The present possibilities for the real progress of historic and 
economic science lie, first and foremost, in the development 
of a generation of economists and practical historians, who 
realize that history is past politics and politics present history; 
secondly, in the expansion of the local consciousness into a 
fuller sense of its historic worth and dignity, of the cosmo- 
3 



18 Special Methods of Historical Study. 

politan relations of modern local life, and of its own whole- 
some conservative power in these days of growing centraliza- 
tion. National and international life can best develop upon 
the constitutional basis of local self-government in church and 
state. 

The work of developing a generation of specialists has 
already begun in the college and the university. The devel- 
opment of loail consciousness can perhaps be best stimulated 
throuijh the common school. It may be a suo-aestive fact that 
the school committee of Great Barrington, INIass., lately voted 
[Berhshire^ Courier, Sept. 6, 1882) to introduce into their village 
high school/ in the hands of an Amherst graduate, in connec- 
tion with Xordhoif 's " Politics for Young Americans/' and 
Jevons' " Primer of Political Economy/' the article " upon 
" The Germanic Origin of New England Towns/' which was 
once read in part before the Village Improvement Society of 
Stockbridge, Mass., Aug. 24, 1881, and published in the 
Pittsficld Evening Journal of that day. Local demand really 
occasioned a university supply of the article^ in question. The 
possible connection between the college and the common school 
is still better illustrated by the case of Professor Macy, of Iowa 
College, Grinnell, Avho is one of the most active pioneers in 
teaching '^ the real homely facts of government," and who in 
1881 published a little tract on Civil Government in Iowa, 
which is now used by teachers throughout that entire State in 
preparing their oral instructions for young pupils, beginning 
with the township and the county, the institutions that are 
" neiirest and most easily learned." A special pupil of Pro- 
fessor Macy's — Al])ert Shaw, A. B., Iowa College, 1879 — is 
now writing a similar treatise on Civil Government in Illinois, 
for school use in that State. There should be such a manual 
for every State in the Union. 

' The catalogiie of the Great Barrington High School (1882) shows that 
tlic study of history and politics is there founded, as it should be, upon a 
geographical basis. 

* Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, II. 
"The (fcrnianic Origin of New i'2ngland Towns." 



Special Ilethocls of Historical Study. 19 

But the writer would like to see a text-book which not only 
explains, as does Principal Macy, " the real homely facts of 
government/' but which also sus^o^ests how those facts came 
to be. A study of the practical workings of local government 
and of the American Constitution is a study of politics which 
every young American ought to pursue. But a study of the 
origin and development of American institutions is a study of 
history in one of its most important branches. It is not 
necessary that young Americans should grapple with ^^tlie 
Constitution '^ at the very outset. Their forefathers put their 
energies into the founding of villages, towns, and plantations 
before they thought of American independence. Their first 
country this side of the Atlantic was the colony ; in some 
instances, the county. It is not uuAvorthy of sons to study 
the historic work of fathers who constructed a nation upon the 
solid rock of local self-government in church and state. 

If young Americans are to appreciate their religious and 
political inheritance, they must learn its intrinsic worth. 
They must be taught to appreciate the common and lowly 
things around them. They should grow up with as profound 
respect for town and parish meetings as for the State legisla- 
ture, not to speak of the Houses of Congress. They should 
recognize the majesty of the law, even in the parish constable 
as well as in the high sheriff of the county. They should 
look on selectmen as the head men of the town, the survival 
of the old English reeve and fom' best men of the parish. 
They should be taught to see in the town common or village 
green a survival of that primitive institution of land-commu- 
nity upon which town and state are based. They should be 
taught the meaning of town and family names ; how the word 
" town '' means, primarily, a place hedged in for purposes of 
defence ; how the picket-fences around home and house-lot are 
but a survival of the primitive town idea ; how home, hamlet, 
and toicn live on together in a name like Hampton, or Home- 
town. They should investigate the most ordinary things, for 
these are often the most archaic. For example, there is the 



20 Special Methods of Historical Study. 

village pound, which Sir Henry Maine says is one of the most 
ancient institutions, '' older than the king's bench, and prob- 
ably older than the kingdom." There, too, are the field- 
drivers (still known in New England), the ancient tow*n 
herdsmen, village sliepherds, and village swine-herds (once 
common in this country), Avho serve to connect our historic 
life with the earliest pastoral beginnings of mankind. 

It would certainly be an excellent thing for the develop- 
ment of historical science in America if teachers in our public 
schools would cultivate the historical spirit in their pupils 
with special reference to the local environment. Something 
more than local history can be dra^vn from such sources. 
Take the Indian relics, the arrow-heads which a boy has 
found in his father's field, or which mav have been j^iven him 
by some antiquary : here are texts for familiar talks by the 
teacher ui)on the " Stone Age " and the progress of the world 
from savage beginnings. Indian names still linger upon our 
landsciipes, upon our mountains, rivers, fields, and meadows, 
affording a suggestive parallel between the " exterminated " 
natives of I]ngland and Xew England. AVliat a quickening 
impulse could be given to a class of bright pupils by a visit 
to some scene of ancient conflict with the Indians, like that at 
Bloody Brook in South Deerfield, Mass., or to such an inter- 
esting local museum as that in Old Deerfield, where is exhibited 
in a good state of preservation, the door of an early settler's 
house, — a door cut through by Indian tomahawks ! 

A nuiltitude of historical associations gather around every 
old town and hamlet in the land. There are local legends 
and traditions, liousehold tales, stories told by grandfathers 
and grandmothers, incidents remembered by " the oldest in- 
habitants." But above all in im])ortance are the old docu- 
ments and manuscript records of the first settlers, the early 
])ionoors, the founders of our towns. Here are sources of 
inibniiation more authentic than tradition, and vet often 
entirely neglected. If teachers would simjily make a few 
extracts from these unpublLshcd records, they would soou 



Special Methods of Historical Study, 21 

have sufficient materials in their hands for elucidating local 
history to their jjupils and fellow-townsmen. The publica- 
tion of such extracts in the local j)aper is one of the best ways 
to quicken local interest in matters of history. Biographies 
of ^'the first families/^ of the various ministers, doctors, 
lawyers, " Squires," ^' Generals," ^' Colonels," college grad- 
uates, school-teachers, and leading citizens, — these are all 
legitimate and pleasant means of kindling historical interest 
in the community and in the schools. The town fathers, the 
fathers of families, and all their sons and daughters will 
quickly catch the bearings of this kind of historical study, 
for it takes hold upon the life of the community and quickens 
not only pride in the past but hope for the future. 

In order to study history it is not necessary to begin with 
dead men's bones, with Theban dynasties, the kings of Assyria, 
the royal families of Europe, or even with the presidents of 
the United States. These subjects have their importance in 
certain connections, but for beginners in history there are 
perhaps other subjects of greater interest and vitality. The 
most natural entrance to a knowledge of the history of the 
w^orld is from a local environment through widening circles 
of interest, until, from the rising ground of the present, the 
broad horizon of the ])ast comes clearly into vicAv. There is 
hardly a subject of contemporary interest which, if properly 
studied, will not carry the mind back to a remote antiquity, 
to historic relations as wide as the world itself. A study of 
the community in which the student dwells will serve to 
connect that community not only with the origin and groAvth 
of the State and Nation, but with the mother-country, with 
the German fatherland, with village communities throughout 
the Aryan world, — from Germany and Russia to old Greece 
and Rome ; from these classic lands to Persia and India. 
Such modern connections with the distant Orient are more 
refreshing than the genealogy of Darius the son of Ilystaspes. 

I would not be understood as disparaging ancient or old- 
world history, for, if rightly taught, this is the most inter- 



22 Special Methods of Historical Study, 

esting of all history ; but I would be understood as empha- 
sizing the importance of studying the antiquity which survives 
in the present and in this country. America is not such a 
new world as it seems to many foreigners. Geologists tell us 
that our continent is the oldest of all. Historians like Mr. 
Freeman declare that if we want to see Old England we must 
go to New England. Old France survives in French Canada. 
In Virginia, peculiarities of the WcvSt Saxon dialect are still 
preserved. Professor James A. Harrison, of Lexington, Vir- 
ginia, writes me that in Louisiana and ]\Iississippi, where 
upon old French and Spanish settlements the English finally 
planted, there are " sometimes three traditions sujjer-imposed, 
one on the other." Men like George W. Cable and Charles 
Gayarr6 have been mining to good advantage in such historic 
strata. If American students and teachers are equally wise, 
they will look about their own homes before visiting the land 
of Chaldfea. 

The main difficulty with existing methods of teachino: his- 
tory seems to be that the subject is treated as a record of dead 
facts, and not as a living science. Pupils fail to realize the 
vital connection between the past and the present ; they do 
not understand that ancient history was the dawn of a light 
which is still shining on ; they do not grasp the essential idea 
of history, which is the orrowino; self-knowledccc of a liviuG:, 
progressive age. Etymologically and practically, the study 
of history is simply a learning by inquiry. According to 
Professor Droysen, who is one of the most eminent historians 
in Berlin, the historiail method is merely to understand by 
means of rc^icarch. Now it seems entirely practicable for 
every teacher and student of history to promote, in a limited 
way, the "know thyself'^ of the nineteenth century by orig- 
inal investigation of things not yet fully known, and by com- 
immicatiiig to others tlie results of his individual study. The 
])nr.-iiit nl' lii^toi'v may thus become an active instead of a 
passive process, — an incrciising joy instead of a depressing 
burden. Studentij will thus Icai'n that history is not entirely 



Special Methods of Historical Study. 23 

bound up in text-books ; that it does not consist altogether 
in what this or that learned authority has to say about the 
world. What the world believes concerning itself, after all 
that men have written, and what the student thinks of the 
world, after viewing it with the aid of guide-books and with 
his own eyes, — these are matters of some moment in the 
developmental process of that active self-knowledge and 
philosophic reflection which make history a living science 
instead of a museum of facts and of books " as dry as dust/' 
Works of history, the so-called standard authorities, are likely 
to become dead specimens of humanity unless they continue 
in some way to quicken the living age. But written history 
seldom fails to accomplish this end, and even antiquated works 
often continue their influence if viewed as progressive phases 
of human self-knowledge. Monuments and inscriptions can 
never grow old so long as the race is young. New meaning 
is put into ancient records ; fresh garlands are hung upon 
broken statues ; new temples are built from classic materials ; 
and the world rejoices at its constant self-renewal. 



II. 

New Methods of Study in History/ 



The methods of historical study which are to be described 
in this paper may be specified as the Topical method, the 
Comparative method, the Co-operative method, and the Sem- 
inary or Laboratory method. 

1.— THE TOPICAL METHOD. 

A story is told of the introduction of biology to a class in an 
American college by a young professor, who, when asked by 
the college president if he did not intend to begin his class- 
work with a study of great principles, replied "No, we shall 
begin with a bushel of clams." If there is any guiding 
principle in the study of historical as well as of natural 
science, it is " The way to that which is general is through that 
which is special." ^ For beginners in history concrete facts 

^ This paper was read in abstract before tbe American Social Science 
Association, at Saratoga, September 4, 1883. It has since been considerably 
enlarged, especially upon the subject of the Seminary method, which has 
lately been worked out at the Johns Hopkins University in certain peculiar 
and practical ways, which may have more than a local interest. Dr. G. 
Stanley Hall and others interested in American pedagogics have urged the 
publication of a fuller account of the Baltimore Seminary, than the fore- 
going chapter which appeared in his book. The present article, while 
giving in detail the history of a local institution, which has evolved in its 
own way, treats of historical seminaries in general, so that the subject may 
be fairly represented. 

^O. Yager, quoted by Diesterweg, in Dr. Hall's volume on "Methods of 
Teaching History," 146. 

4 25 



26 New IfetJwds of Studi/ in History. 

are quite as essential as clams or earth-worms for beginners in 
biology. It makes little difference with what class of facts the 
student begins, provided they are not too complex for easy- 
apprehension. A child may find historical culture in Bible 
stories, in Aryan mythology, in the Arabian Nights, in the 
legends of the middle ages, in the Boy's Froissart, or in the 
travels and adventures of Captain John Smith. Children 
of a larger growth may find as much profit in studying inci- 
dents of ancient as incidents of modern history. As far as 
mere culture is concerned, old Rome may be as suggestive as 
modern England. Ancient Egypt has its parallel in modern 
China. Democracy in Europe is fully as interesting as 
democracy in America. The point is that universal history 
may be approached in a great variety of special ways, any one 
of which may be as good as another. They are like the 
Brahminical philosopher's idea of different religious revela- 
tions, — gates leading into the same city. All roads lead to 
Home, and all roads lead to history. 

But while this general truth remains, that a student may 
approach history from any standpoint he may choose to take, 
whether in the ancient or in the modern world, at the begin- 
ning or at the end of historic time, it also remains true that 
there is a certain practical advantage in beginning historical 
study with that Avhich is nearest and most familiar. A man's 
own family, community, country, and race are the most natural 
objects of historical interest, because man is born into such 
associations and because an historical knowledge of them Avill 
always be the most valuable form of historical culture, for 
these subjects most concern our own life, our past, present, and 
future. In histor}^, as in biology, live specimens are usually 
better than dead ones. As a live dog is better than a dead 
lion, so historical subjects which possess vitality or continuity 
of interest from ajje to a<]:e, are tlie fittest for historical study. 
Some characters and scenes of history arc of fresh and peren- 
nial interest aUliough belonging to ages now remote. Other 
topics seem to have no enduring life, and, like dead specimens 



New Methods of Study in History. 27 

of zoologjj are relegated to antiquarian museums. Life is of 
supreme interest to history, as it is to biology; hence those 
nations and men that have made the present what it is will 
always be the best topics for historical study. 

The field of history is so vast, it is cumbered with so many 
ruins and dead men's bones, that it is almost impossible to range 
over the whole tract and to identify all the past. There are 
some things which interest us and some which do not. It 
is better to rescue a few topics of living interest than to waste 
time and strength upon a dead past which buries itself. 
Accordingly, in teaching or studying any given section of 
history, whether ancient or modern, American or Assyrian, 
English or Egyptian, German or Greek, Russian or Roman, it 
would be well for the teacher or student to hold to living issues, 
to topics of surviving or of lasting interest. It is not worth 
while, for example, for most students to learn all the names 
of Assyrian and Egyptian kings, and how long each dynasty 
reigned. On the other hand, enduring geographical facts, 
which have supported kingdoms in Mesopotamia and in the 
Nile valley during all ages of the world, are of lasting sig- 
nificance. The agriculture, industries, art, science, literature, 
religion and social culture of these countries will always be 
of interest to most minds, for these things have entered into 
the life of the race. The ways and means by which modern 
science began to find out these early civilizations is almost as 
interesting as the facts that were discovered. A knowledge 
of the modern literature concerning ancient Egypt or Assyria 
is perhaps of even more value to students than a general 
knowledge of Egyptian chronology. 

I should be inclined to recommend, in beginning the study 
of history by any special method of approach, like the history 
of America or the history of Egypt, that teacher and class 
begin work upon the geography of the United States or of the 
Nile valley. The pupil should be referred to his atlas and 
the teacher should show his pupil how to draw an outline 
map of the country under consideration, how to lecture in an 



28 New Methods of Study in History, 

off-hand way, upon the coast-line, mountain-ranges, river-val- 
leys, climate, and other physical characteristics of tlie land, in 
short, tlie enduring natural influences Avliich would affect the 
people inhabiting this chosen land. Show him Avhere they 
would settle if they followed the guidance of geography and 
climate. Such a topic as physical geogra})hy, thus viewed in 
its specific application to a given country, might profitably 
occupy several class exercises. Then, after a thorough consid- 
eration of the lay of the land, comes naturally the topic of the 
people, the first inhabitants. Were they aborigines, if not, 
where did they come from as colonists ? This question of the 
origin and connection of races, even if cursorily treated, intro- 
duces a class at once to one of the greatest topics in universal 
history, namely, ethnology. AVhether viewed in ancient or 
modern ways, the subject of the origin and dispersion of races 
must always remain one of the most fruitful and instructive 
themes. 

After the topics of a chosen land and of a chosen people, 
should come the subject of the sources of that people's history. 
What memorials of themselves have the primitive inhabitants 
of America or of Egypt left behind them ? Here is an oppor- 
tunity, whether in the case of ancient America or of ancient 
Egypt,^ for considering the subject of the Stone Age, the first 
relics of human industry and of the oldest monuments of our 
race. AMietlier the illustration be Indian arrow heads or 
sharp Ethioi)ian stones, the mounds of the Great West or the 
pyramids of Egypt, a class of bright students will easily 
become interested, if not enthusiastic, provided the slightest 
care Ls taken to present them with illustrative material in the 
shape of Stone Age relics, real or pictoriid. Egy])tian liiero- 
glyj[)hics and Indian picture writing would serve the same great 



' The idea of Brnu^cli that " Egypt throws scorn upon tlie assumed periods 
of the three ages of stone, of bronze, and of iron," finds striicing refutation 
in Prof. Ilenrv W. Ilayne's " Discovery of Pahieolithic Implements in Uisper 
Egyi't." Memoirs of the American Academy of Science, vol. x. 



New Methods of Study in History. 29 

purpose of explaining the origin of alphabets and literatures. 
The special and the concrete are thus transformed into the uni- 
versal and the philosophic, and that too in the mind of a child. 
Universalia in rebus. A picture of the Rosetta Stone or a story 
of Indian myths brings different languages and religions into 
some kind of co-ordination, and even in the study of a single 
people the history of the world begins to be the history of 
our common humanity. The religious ideas, the manners and 
customs of both Indians and Egyptians are among the very 
best sources of universal history, and no teacher or student 
can aiford to neglect such topics. Under the head of the 
sources of American or of Egyptian history a great variety 
of special topics will suggest themselves as class-work 
advances and as individual interest kindles for concrete real- 
ities. 

So varied and so deep becomes the interest in topical 
history that no manual or mere sketch is sufficient to satisfy the 
demands of a quick and eager class. Original sources and 
standard authorities are seen to be fresher, purer, and stronger 
than the tiny rill of school-book literature which rarely flows 
from the real fountain-head, but from standing reservoirs of 
derived knowledge. It is of great importance in the pedagog- 
ical process of teaching history that the student should learn 
the origin of written history, how manuals and standard 
histories are constructed; otherwise, the student will look 
upon the book or manual as a final authority. He should, on 
the contrary, look at all written history as simply a current, 
more or less colored by human prejudice, a current which has 
come down, like the Nile or the Mississippi, from some higher 
and more original source than the passing stream. Such a 
consciousness leads the student to further inquiry, to a habit 
of mind like that of explorers who sought the sources of the 
Nile or of the Congo. To develop this inquiring habit in 
pupils is an easy matter, but it is not always so easy to 
gratify awakened curiosity. Pupils should, however, be 
taught to find out things for themselves and not to despise 



30 New Methods of Study in History. 

the teacher or an author, if he does not profess to know 
everything that can be discovered. The sooner pupils and 
teacher consent to work together, the better it will be for 
both. 

American teachers are beginning to introduce their pupils to 
American history in special ways. In Boston, during the 
summer vacation of 1883, a course of lectures for young people 
was given in the Old South Church by a number of specialists, 
encouraged by Mrs. Augustus Hemenway, upon such common- 
place topics as History in the Boston Streets, Franklin the 
Boston Boy, Samuel Adams the Man of the Town meeting, 
Concord, Plymouth, and Governor Bradford. In connec- 
tion with each lecture was published a miniature historical 
journal called "Old South Leaflets,'' containing short extracts 
from original sources of Ncav England History, for example 
an extract from Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation 
describing the preliminary arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in 
Caj^e Cod Harbor, before tlieir landing upon Plymouth Pock. 
In connection with the lecture on Concord, given by Mr. 
Frank B. Sanborn, was printed an extract from Ralph AYaldo 
Emerson's Discourse on the Second Centennial Anniversary of 
the Incorporation of the Town, togetlier with that famous 
Concord hymn written by the poet -sage, where 

" once the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the world." 

To accompany the lecture on Town meeting, by Professor 
James K. Hosmer, extracts were printed from Jeiferson and 
De Tocqueville, and from the revolutionary correspondence of 
the famous committees of safety which evolved from those 
popular assemblies under the guidance of men like Samuel 
Adams, the Man of the Town meeting. Such to])ical lectures 
explain how the American Revolution was kindled. These 
are good illustrations of the topical method of introducing 
pupils not only to New England history, but to tlie history of 
our common country. One cannot help believing that the 



Neiu Methods of Study in History. 31 

Old South Church ^ proved a better school -house and a more 
suggestive school-book during a summer vacation than many 
which bear the name, year in and year out. 

It is undoubtedly the most profitable course for American 
Common Schools and High Schools to approach the study of 
history, as they usually do, from an American standpoint, 
from which the field of vision widens gradually over English 
and French history. But it is possible, in many instances, to 
make American history more interesting and more suggestive 
by improving the local envu'onment, by opening fresh vistas 
with widening outlook from the local vantage ground of State, 
County, Town, and Village. The American standpoint will 
aiford broader views and more local coloring by special methods 
of observation. 

One of the best illustrations of the topical method as 
applied to the study of American history is the class-work of 
Professor Moses Coit Tyler, at Cornell University, and of Dr. 
Albert B. Hart, at Harvard University. Cornell is the first 
American institution which has made American history a 
distinct specialty, by the establishment of a full professorship, 
devoted entirely to this department. President White, in his 
recent report (1883), says: ^'In no part of the world to-day 
is there so complete a course in American history, either in 
extent or equipment,^ as can be found here.'' 



' A further development of tlie lecture system in the Old South Church 
was a course of twelve special lectures by Mr. John Fiske, upon the Amer- 
ican Eevolution, from "The First Misunderstanding," 1761-67 — until con- 
stitutional order evolved out of chaos, 1787-89. 

^ The equipment of Cornell University for the study of American history 
is illustrated by the Sparks and May Collections, and by an appropriation 
from the Trustees, of " over §5,000 during the past year [1883] to special pur- 
chases of books in the department of American history." One of the 
Faculty "has deposited for the use of the students, a large collection of 
works relating to the most recent period in our history, especially the time 
of the Civil War. The Executive Committee have also fitted up a commo- 
dious lecture-room and a special library for the use of students in this 
department, and have added to its other equipment a very complete collec- 
tion of maps." Extracts from President White's Annual Report, 1883. 



32 Keiv Methods of Study in History. , 

Professor Tyler, by request of the author of this paper, has 
prepared the following brief account of a special class-course, 
which admirably illustrates the topical method : 

" Perhaps it may be a peculiarity in my work as a teacher of 
History here that I am permitted to give my whole attention 
to American History. At any rate, this fact enables me to 
organize the work of American History so as to cover, more 
perfectly than I could otherwise do, the whole field, from the 
prehistoric times of this continent down to the present, with a 
minuteness of attention varying, of course, as the importance 
of the particular topic varies. 

^' I confess that I adopt for American History the principle 
which Professor Seeley, of Cambridge, is fond of applying to 
English History, namely, that while History should be thor- 
oughly scientific in its method, its object should be practical. 
To this extent I believe in History with a tendency. My 
interest in our own past is chiefly derived from my interest in 
our own present and future ; and I teach American History, 
not so much to make historians as to make citizens and good 
leaders for the State and the Xation. From this point of 
view^, I decide upon the selection of historical topics for special 
study. At present I should describe them as the following : 
The native races, especially the Mound-builders and the North 
American Indians; the alleged Pre-Columbian discoveries; 
the origin and enforcement of England's claim to North 
America, as against competing European nations ; the motives 
and methods of English colony-planting in America in the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; the development of ideas 
and institutions in tlie American colonies, witli particular ref- 
erence to religion, education, industry, and civil freedom; the 
grounds of inter-colonial isolation and of inter-colonial fellow- 
sliip; the causes and j)r()gress of the movement for colonial 
independence; the history of the formation of the national 
constitution ; the origin and growth of ix)litical parties under 
the constitution ; the history of slavery as a factor in Americiui 
])()litics, culminating in the ci\il war of 18G1-G5. On all 



New Methods of Study in History. 33 

these subjects, I try to generate and preserve in myself and 
my pupils such an anxiety for the truth, that we shall prefer 
it even to national traditions or the idolatries of party. 

^' As to methods of work, I doubt if I have anything to report 
that is peculiar to myself, or different from the usage of all 
teachers who try to keep abreast of the times. I am an 
eclectic. I have tried to learn all the current ways of doing 
this work, and have appropriated what I thought best suited 
to our own circumstances. As I have students of all grades, 
so my methods of work include the recitation, the lecture, and 
the seminary.^ I have found it impossible by the two former, 
to keep my students from settling into a merely passive atti- 
tude ; it is only by the latter that I can get them into an 
attitude that is inquisitive, eager, critical, originating. My 
notion is that the lecturing must be reciprocal. As I lecture 
to them, so must they lecture to me. We are all students and 
all lecturers. The law of life with us is co-operation in the 
search after the truth of history.'^ 

In a book recently published by Ginn and Heath, of Boston, 
on ^' Methods of Teaching History,'^ there is a thorough exposi- 
tion of the special or topical method, from the pen of Professor 
William F. Allen, of the University of Wisconsin. He has 
also contributed a remarkably full list of "History Topics'' 
pertaining to ancient, mediaeval, and modern history, — 
including a special group of subjects rejjresenting the history 
of America. This list of topics, filling a dozen small octavo 
pages, forms an excellent guide to the study not only of uni- 
versal history, but also of history from any special point of 
view, whether ancient or modern. Oriental, Grecian, Roman, 
Frankish, German, French, or American. The list might, 
perhaps, be supplemented by a fuller set of English topics, 



An excellent illustration of Professor Tj^er's seminary work is a paper 
by Miss Mary E. B. Roberts, of Washington, D. C, on ''Bacon's Rebel- 
lion," which was read by me before the Historical Seminary in Baltimore, 
February 8, 1884. 

5 



34 Nexo Methods of Study in History, 

but for an introduction to general history it will admirably 
serve its purpose. A valuable companion to this list of topics 
is a chapter on ^' Historical Literature and Authorities," which 
will greatly aid the teacher or student who may be engaged 
in a special line of historical study. One finds here the chief 
English works of historical literature all conveniently classi- 
fied by subjects, with brief annotations indicating the special 
value or weakness of various authorities. It is no small mat- 
ter for a student to learn the best ways and means of historical 
inquiry upon such important subjects as Primitive Society, 
Comparative ^lythology. Ethnic Religions, the History of 
Society, General History, Ancient History, (the Orient, Greece, 
Kome) the Church, the Reformation, England, Ireland, Scot- 
land, Erance, the English and French Revolutions, the Nine- 
teenth Century, the United States, and our last civil war. 
Professor Allen's chronological classification of historical 
novels, poems, plays, and his mention of books for collateral 
reading in connection with class-Avork will also prove of great 
practical value to teachers and pupils. ^' Knowledge," says 
if Dr. Johnson, ^' is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, 
or we know where w^e can find information upon it." 

Professor Allen's views concerning 'the topical method of 
historical study are best represented by one or two literal 
citations from his chapter in the volume above mentioned : 
*^ The field of history is so vast and varied that it is impossi- 
ble, in any college course, to treat all the subjects that deserve 
to be taken up. All that we can do is to lay out a course, or 
a number of courses, which appear to meet, as a whole, the 
needs of the largest number, and which will allow selection, 
in accordance with tastes, to those who do not care to take it 
as a whole. ... As to method, I have also experimented a 
great deal. For college classes — elective classes especially — 
nothing seems to me a greater waste of force than to spend the 
hour with a text-book in my hand, hearing the students repeat 
what is in the book, liccturing, however satisfactory in the 
German universities, I do not find suited to the Avants of my 



Neio Metliods of Study in History. 35 

students as a regular mode of instruction. For sugcrestion and 
for review it may be employed with great advantage ; and for 
regular instruction in fields in which there is no suitable text- 
book, I am often obliged to have recourse to it. But it 
requires, to be efficacious, constant questioning, thorough 
examinations, and occasional inspection of note-books. 

''■ In the method which I have at last settled upon, my aim 
has been to get some of the benefits which students in the 
natural sciences acquire from work in laboratories. Students 
of the age and maturity of juniors and seniors can get the 
greatest advantage from historical study by doing some inde- 
pendent work akin to laboratory work. I Avould not be 
understood as claiming that this is original investigation, in 
any true sense of the term. Laboratory work in chemistry 
and physics is not original investigation, neither is the study 
of topics in history. The object, it must be remembered, is 
education, not historical investigation ; and the object of the 
educational process is not merely to ascertain facts, but even 
more : to learn how to ascertain facts. For the student, as a 
piece of training, historians like Prescott and Bancroft may 
stand in the place of authorities. To gather facts from them, 
really at second hand, has for the student much of the educa- 
tional value of first-hand work. Of course, there is a differ- 
ence in students, and the work done by some is of a much 
higher grade than that of others. For the best students it 
easily and frequently passes into the actual study of authori- 
ties at first hand. 

''In studying by topics I always desire that the class should 
have a text-book — a brief compendium — upon which they are 
liable to be questioned and examined, and which will serve at 
any rate as a basis and guide of work. My method is then to 
assign for every day— as long beforehand as possible— special 
topics to two or three students, which they are to study with 
as great thoroughness as possible in all the works to which 
they have access, and present orally in the class, writing out a 
syllabus beforehand upon the blackboard. If they write out 



36 Keiv Methods of Study in History. 

the topic, and depend upon a written paper, they are much less 
likely to be certain of their ground and independent in their 
treatment. 

" The topical method here described is successsful in propor- 
tion to the abundance and accessibility of books of reference. 
In American history it works best, and here I employ no other. 
In the dynastic history of ancient and modern times, it is satis- 
factory in most cases. I combine with it constant map-draAv- 
ing, and the preparation of a synchronistic chart. In the more 
advanced courses, owing to the deficiency of good books of 
reference, it is necessary to abandon the method, or combine 
it with lectures, recitations, and written essays. It is, of course, 
impossible to assign topics which cover the whole ground. It 
is possible, however, to select for this purpose all the names 
and events of first importance, and it is one of the advantages 
of the topical method that it thus affords an opportunity to 
emphasize those facts of history which most need emphasis. It 
is the special function of the teacher to supplement the topics, 
to point out their relative importance and their connection 
with one another, and to help the students in acquiring a com- 
plete and accurate general view." , 

2.— THE COMPARATIVE METHOD. 

A great impulse was given to the historical sciences by the 
introduction of the comparative method into the study of 
philology, mythology, religion, law, and institutions. It 
seemed as thougli t\\Q horizon of all of these fields suddenly 
widened, and as if the world of luunan thought and research 
were expanding into new realms. Through comparative 
pliilology the kinship of the Indo-European family of nations 
was made known to History, and upon the basis of this one great 
fact, comparative mytliology, comparative religion, compar- 
ative jurisprudence and comparative politics have been raised 
into indej)endent sciences. Perhaps the grandest result of 
the comparative method, while broadening the ai'cas of 



New Methods of Study in History. 37 

human knowledge, was the breaking down of that middle 
wall of partition between nations once thought to be widely 
different in language, religion, law and government. The 
ancient and the modern world were brought together. It was 
seen that Medes and Persians, Greeks and Romans, Kelts, 
Teutons, and Slaves are all of one common Aryan stock. 
^^ Before the great discoveries of modern science,'^ says Free- 
man, ^^ before that greatest of all its discoveries which has 
revealed to us the unity of Aryan sj)eech, of Aryan religion, 
and Aryan political life, the worn out superstitions about 
^ ancient ^ and ^ modern ' ought to pass by like the spectres of 
darkness. . . . The range of our political vision becomes wider 
when the application of the comparative method sets before 
us the ekldesia of Athens, the comitia of Rome, as institutions, 
not merely analogous, but absolutely the same thing, parts of 
the same common Aryan heritage, as the ancient assemblies 
of our own land. We carry on the tale as we see that it is 
out of those assemblies that our modern parliaments, our 
modern courts of justice, our modern public gatherings of 
every kind, have grown.'^ (On the Study of History, Fort- 
nightly Review, March 1, 1881.) 

It would be a fine thing for American students if, in 
studying special topics in the history of their own country, 
they would occasionally compare the phases of historic 
truth here discovered with similar phases of discovery else- 
Avhere; if, for example, the colonial beginnings of North 
America should be compared with Aryan migrations westward 
into Greece and Italy, or again with the colonial systems of 
Greece and of the Roman Empire, or of the English Empire 
to-day, which is continuing in South Africa and Australia and 
in Manitoba, the same old spirit of enterprise which colonized 
the Atlantic seaboard of North America. It would interest 
young minds to have parallels drawn between English colo- 
nies, Grecian commonwealths, Roman provinces, the United 
Cantons of Switzerland, and the United States of Holland. 
To be sure, these various topics would requn'e considerable 



38 New Methods of Study in History. 

study on the part of teacher and pupil, but the fathers of the 
American constitution, Madison, Hamilton, and others, 'went 
over such ground in preparing the platform of our present 
federal government. American sons can follow their fathers, 
although with unequal steps. Why should not American 
youth learn, as did the founders of our government, that there 
have been such things as confederations and unions, as con- 
stitutions and states rights, as checks and balances, in other 
countries and in former ages of the world? In such ways 
American history might become less provincial and more 
universal. 

But my special plea is for the application of the compara- 
tive method to the use of historical literature. Students should 
learn to view history in different lights and from various 
standpoints. Instead of relying passively upon the ipse dixit 
of the school-master or of the school-book or of some one 
historian, pupils should learn to judge for themselves by com- 
paring evidence. Of course some discretion should be exer- 
cised by the teacher in the case of young pupils, but even 
children are attracted by diiferent versions of the same tale or 
legend, and catch at new points of interest with all the eager- 
ness of original investigators. The scattered elements of fact 
or tradition should be brought together as children piece 
together the scattered blocks of a map. The criterion of all 
truth, as well as of all art, is fitness. Comparison of different 
accounts of the same historic event would no more injure boys 
and girls than would a comparative study of the four gospels. 
On the contrary, such comparisons strengthen the judgment 
and give it greater independence and stability. In teaching 
history, altogether too much stress has been laid, in many of 
our schools, upon mere forms of verbal expression in the text- 
book, as thougli historic truth consisted in the repetition of 
what some author had said. It would be far better for the 
student to read the same story in several different forms and 
then to give his own version. The latter process would be an 
independent historical view based upon a variety of evidence. 



New Methods of Study in History. 39 

The memorizing of " words, words/^ prevents the assimilation 
of pure facts and clogs the mental processes of reflection and 
private judgment. 

The prosecution of the comparative method in the study of 
history requires an increase of facilities beyond the meagre 
text-books now in use. While by no means advocating the 
abolition of all manuals, chronologies, and general sketches of 
history, I would strongly urge the establishment of class- 
libraries for historical reference. This special practice would 
be quite in harmony with the growing custom of equipping 
public schools with special libraries. It is a practice which 
the interest of publishers and the good sense of all friends of 
education would tend to foster. In some cases, where pupils 
are well advanced, they can take the matter of supplying a 
special library into their own hands, under the direction of a 
teacher. At Smith College, ISTorthampton, Massachusetts, the 
various classes, for several years in succession, instead of buy- 
ing text-books in history, contributed the money which text- 
books would have cost into individual class funds, with which 
a great variety of standard authorities and original sources of 
information were procured, covering the historical period the 
class was to study as no manuals could have done. Each 
class-library was kept under the control of a class-committee, 
who saw to it that the books were so distributed as to carry 
out the plans of the teacher for class-work and individual 
investigation. Special topics were assigned, which required 
reading in a variety of authors, a chapter here, a few pages 
there, a paragraph elsewhere. By careful management on the 
part of the teacher and by cordial co-operation on the part of 
the class, a few good books of reference may become a circu- 
lating library of remarkable efficiency. The larger the class, 
the larger the library that can be afforded and the greater the 
potential volume of class-knowledge thereby secm^ed ; but in 
smaller classes it is of course easier for the teacher to co-ordin- 
ate labor and its results. The preparation of essays on special 
themes, based upon the comparative method of study ; oral 



40 New Methods of Study in History, 

examinations of the class upon general topics which have been 
prepared from different sources of information ; the occasional 
inspection of note-books, the keeping of which should be re- 
quired in connection with class-reading ; written examinations 
on general topics, lectures, and certain optional subjects afford 
sufficient scoj^e for the teacher's judgment as to the progress 
of his class by the comparative method. 

At Smith College, Harvard College, and at the Johns Hop- 
kins University, the comparative method of study in History 
and other subjects has long been in operation. In Cambridge 
and in Baltimore, certain books are reserved from the main 
library of the university for class-use. In Baltimore, such 
reservations are occasionally supplemented by drafts on other 
libraries in the city and by private contributions. The books 
are read in the university reading-room, but are taken out 
by special arrangement, for a limited time, when there is no 
other demand. In Baltimore, among undergraduates, the 
comparative method of historical study is confined chiefly to 
the use of standard histories, with here and there an original 
source of information to give the spice of originality to student- 
research. The general theory is that undergraduates need 
training in good historical form, quite ats much as in historical 
substance; that the influence of great masters like Curtius 
and Gibbon, Sismondi and Guizot, Hallam, Stubbs, Freeman, 
Green, Motley, and Bancroft, are of as great consequence as 
the facts they teach. The mere acquaintance with historical 
literature which a student acquires by the comparative method 
is likely to prove a greater value and stimulus to him in after 
life than any amount of text-book culture, of mere verbiage. 
]\Iorcover, by the comparative method in the use of standard 
historians, students learn by a secondary process the same 
habits of reflection and individual judgment which they must 
afterwards apply and develoj) in the primary process of 
constructing liistory from original sources. 

Good illustrations of the comparative method in historical 
study are the courses at Harvard college, given by Professor 



New Methods of Study in History. 41 

Torrey, aided by Dr. Edward Charming, in diplomatic his- 
tory, international law, and modern constitutions. While 
certain approved text-books are used for the guidance of the 
class, comparative reading upon special topics is pursued by 
individual students. All the authorities recommended upon 
a given subject are placed among the books reserved for these 
courses. Similar methods are pursued by Professor Macvane 
in his excellent class-courses on European history and on the 
constitutional history of England. 

3._THE CO-OPERATIVE METHOD. 

It is not possible, within the limits of this paper, to describe 
the development of that new system of writing history, which 
is based upon the economic principles of division of labor and 
final co-operation. The time was when individual historians, 
monks and chroniclers, grappled boldly with the history of the 
whole world. There are still compilers of text-books for 
schools and colleges who attempt to epitomize the deeds of 
men from creation down to the present day. Indeed, the 
greatest of living historians, Leopold von Eanke, is now 
rapidly reviewing universal history in a work which already 
embraces several volumes and which he hopes to finish soon, 
being now at the age of eighty-eight, so that he may resume 
more special work. But, in spite of this extraordinary 
example, which seems to defy the weakness of age and the 
will of fate, it may be said with confidence that the day of 
universal histories by individual men is past. The day for 
the special and co-operative treatment of history by countries, 
epochs, and monographic themes is already here. We see a 
co-operative tendency in the best school-books. The history 
even of a single nation is now recognized as too vast a thing 
for one man to handle in a truly scientific manner, although 
special results of individual research are still co-ordinated in 
popular ways. The most notable example of the co-operative 
method in universal history is the new monographic history 
6 



42 * New Methods of Study in History, 

of the world, edited by Professor Willielm Oncken, but com- 
posed by the most emment specialists in Germany. One man 
writes the history of Egypt in the light of modern research ; 
another that of Persia ; a third reviews the history of Greece, 
giving the latest results of Grecian archaeological investi- 
gations; others revise Poman history and the early history of 
Germanic peoples. 

This co-operative method has lately been applied in Schon- 

berg's great work on political economy, and was applied 

many years ago to a dictionary of political science by the 

late Dr. J. C. Bluntschli, of Heidelberg. Under his editorial 

guidance, contributions were made by French and German 

specialists to a great variety of subjects relating to European 

history ahd politics. Bluntschli's example has been followed 

in this country by the publication of Lalor's Cyclopaedia of 

Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political 

History of the United States. In America, the co-operative 

method of writing history has long been in quiet operation. 

Perhaps one of the earliest and most fruitful examples was that 

of the Massachusetts Historical Society, which, in the latter part 

of the last centurv, beo;an to encourao^e the writino; of New 

England town history upon principles ©f local co-operation. 

The contributions of parish ministers and local antiquaries 

were published in the proceedings of the society, and proved 

the humble beginnings of that remarkable series of town 

histories, which have now specialized the constitution of New 

England into a vast number of village republics, each one 

thought worthy of independent treatment. Co-operation has 

entered even the local domain, e, g.^ the history of Boston, after 

passing through various individual hands, has lately been 

rewritten by a group of specialists, working under the editorial 

direction of Professor Justin Winsor, of Harvard College. 

This method is now proposed in Providence and other cities. 

It has been extended by Justin Winsor to the whole country, 

for the Narrative and Critical History of the United States, 

which he is now editing, is made up of monographs by the 

best specialists that the country afibrds. 



New 3fethods of Study in History. 43 

The special plea to be urged in this connection is for the 
application of the co-operative method by classes engaged in 
historical study. The field of universal history is too vast, 
not only for historians, but for individual students to master, 
except in the barest outlines. It has been elsewhere urged 
that the best way to general history is through that which is 
special. Here the proposition is that the results of special 
work can be so co-ordinated in a class of students that each 
member may, to some extent, reaj) the benefit of the labor of 
his companions. Especially is the co-operative method of 
study to be recommended, where the time and opportunities of 
a class are extremely limited. More historical ground can 
thus be covered in a truly scholarly way than is possible from 
the use of a meagre text-book. In Baltimore and elsewhere, 
the co-operative method is applied to the study of universal 
history by countries and epochs. While working to a certain 
extent upon common ground, covered by text-books, prescribed 
authors, and class-lectures, the members of a history-class 
co-operate wdth their instructor in the investigation of special 
topics connected with the course. The results of this special 
work are presented to the class in the form of original papers 
or brief ex tempore lectures by the students themselves, who 
are encouraged to abridge their knowledge and present it to 
the class in the form of an oral report, with the analysis 
written upon the blackboard. The reading of long essays 
before a class usually has a very depressing influence, but a 
student talking freely from a full head, and making his points 
clear and strong, always commands attention. 

The urgent plea, then, for the co-operative method which I 
would make is for its application to the study of History in 
classes. Experience at the Johns Hopkins University and 
at Smith College has shown the advantage of this method for 
classes with a short period of time at their command, who 
nevertheless desire to cover a goodly stretch of historical ter- 
ritory. The method, in its practical operation, consists of a 
division of labor in a class guided by an instructor, who 



44 New Methods of Study in History, 

niKlcrtakcs to direct special work into co-operative channels. 
The student, while to some extent upon the common ground 
of text-books, or prescribed authors, and Avhile taking notes 
upon class-lectures, of a special character, carries on investiga- 
tions in close connection with the general course. Written 
reports are submitted to a critic for correction, are read before 
an elocutionist for the sake of training in the art of presenta- 
tion, and are then finally presented, either wlioUy or in part, 
to the class, who take notes and are examined upon these 
co-operative studies in the same way as on material presented 
by the instructor. 

Studejst Lectures. 

An interesting and valuable practice has gradually grown 
up among students of Historical and Political Science at the 
Johns Hopkins University, namely that of students lecturing 
to their own class upon subjects connected with the course. 
The practice originated several years ago among undergrad- 
uate students of History and International Law ; it was the 
natural outgrowth of the topical method of study. It is a 
practice considerably different from that of reading formal 
essays, which often prove very burdensome to a class of intel- 
ligent pupils. The idea of oral reports with the aid of 
a brief Or of a few notes, or, best of all, of an analysis written 
upon the bhickboard, led the way to the preparation of a reg- 
ular course of co-operative lectures by members of a class 
working conjointly with the instructor. Greater dignity was 
given to the efforts of students by asking them in turn to 
come to the front, to the map or blackboard, or else to 
the instructor's chair. For the time being the student 
became the teacher. Pretensions were seldom made to original 
investigations in preparing for such a class-lecture. The 
understanding was that students should collect the most 
authoritative information upon a given subject and present it 
to his fellows in an instructive way. This naturally implied 
the selection k^^ the best points of view and the omission of all 



New Methods of Study in History. 45 

irrelevant matter. Tlie success of the lecturer turned, not 
upon his occupying the time by reading an encyclopaedic 
article, but upon his kindling the interest of his classmates 
and keeping then* attention to the end. 

Prehistoric Times. 

An experiment was tried during the first half of the present 
academic year (1883-84) with a class of undergraduates (Fresh- 
men) who were just beginning their study of History by 
following a course of introductory lectures on the Origin of 
Civilization. In connection with the instructor ^s course, which 
concerned more especially the Stone Age and the Develop- 
ment of the Human Family, such topics as the following 
were assigned to individuals for study, and for informal lec- 
tures at the desk of the instructor : Clubs and Batons ; Stone 
Knives ; Axes ; Spears and Sceptres ; Origin of Fire ; Origin 
of Clothes ; the Hunting and Fishing Stages of Society ; the 
Plough and the Beginnings of Agriculture ; Bread and the 
Cultivation of Cereals ; Evolution of the House ; Boats and 
their Improvement ; Barter ; the Art of Counting ; Origin of 
the Alphabet; Picture- Writing ; Pottery, etc. The youths 
appointed to these tasks were referred to such authorities as 
Tylor, Lubbock, Lyell, Wilson, Evans, Geikie, Peschel, Keary, 
Abbot, Short, Jones, et al., whose writings were placed upon 
a reservation in the Library. The appointees quickly found 
their way into the pith of these books or such parts of them 
as concerned the subject in hand. The reports made to the 
class in the shape of oif-hand lectures were really of surpris- 
ing interest and value to the audience. So well did the 
experiment succeed that a few of these Freshmen were per- 
suaded to give brief addresses to the Matriculate Society 
(embracing all undergraduate students who are candidates for 
the degree of A. B.) upon a series of connected topics pertain- 
ing to the Stone Age, namely, the Social Condition of Primi- 
tive Man, his Moral and Peligious Condition, his Knowledge 



46 New Methods of Study in History, 

of the Useful Arts, Evidence as to the Antiquity of Man, etc. 
These addresses partook of the nature of a discussion of 
Primitive Man from special j)oints of view. The remarks 
made were by no means essays committed to memory, but 
rather the easy utterance of minds well stored with facts. 
The naturalness of the efforts and the absence of all attempts 
at Sophomoric eloquence were quite noteworthy. 

As further illustrations of the kind of subjects investigated 
by undergraduate students at the Johns Hopkins University, 
who were working in a co-operative Avay with their instruc- 
tors, the following select lists may suffice. It should be 
understood that in each class, namely in Church History, the 
Italian Renaissance, the German Reformation, in the History 
of France and England during the Middle Ages, and in the 
History of Political Economy, the teacher gave systematic 
instruction by lectures or otherwise, and that the investigations 
carried on by students had direct connection with the class- 
course. 

Church History. 

Influence of Jewish Ceremonial upon the Christian Church ; 
Influence of Greek Philosophy upon* Christian Thought; 
Influence of Poman Institutions upon the Church and upon 
tlie Canon LaAV ; the Apostolic Fathers ; the Greek Apolo- 
gists ; the Latin Apologists ; Saint Ambrose ; Chrysostom, 
Saint Jerome and the Vulgate ; Saint Augustine and the City 
of God ; Nestorianism ; the Clergy and the Laity ; the Office 
of Patriarch ; Metropolitan Centres of Church Life ; Origin 
of the Papacy ; Artistic Pepresentations of the Growth of the 
Ecclesiastical Constitution; Leo the Great; Extension of 
Church Authority into England; Conversion of Germany; 
Pclation of Charles the Great to the Papacy ; Otto the Great ; 
International Position of the Holy Poman Empire of the 
German Nation; Constitution of the Empire; Territorial 
Claims of the Empire; Gregory YII. and the Countess 
Mathilda, of Tuscany; the Normans in Sicily; Frederick 



New IletJiods of Study in History, 47 

Barbarossa and his Relations with Italy; Arnold, of Brescia; 
Points of Conflict between the Empire and Papacy; Fall of 
the Hohenstaufen Emperors; the Great Councils of the 15th 
Century. 

The Italian Renaissa:n'ce.^ 

Greece in the Middle Ages; Pevival of Greek Ideas in 
Italy ; Poggio's Study of Roman Antiquities and his Discov- 
ery of Classic Manuscripts; Dante's De Monarchia; Petrarch's 
Relation to the Revival of Learning; Boccaccio's Influence 
upon Literature; Laurenzo Valla and Humanism in Rome; 
the Platonic Academy and Humanism in Florence ; the Revival 
of Roman Law; Mediaeval Universities; Natural Science in 
the Middle Ages; Recent Vindications of Lucretia Borgia; 
the Political Merits of Caesar Borgia; Modern Views of 
Machiavelli ; Savonarola ; Lorenzo di Medici ; Alexander VI ; 
Julius II ; Leo X ; The Building of St. Peter's. 

The Geeman Reformation.^ 

The German Humanists, Reuchlin and IMelanchthon ; 
Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen; Erasmus and 



^ Bibliographies of these " Studies in Modern History by a class of under- 
graduates, 1879-80," were printed in the year last named under two general 
heads, the Italian Eenaissance and the German Reformation. They are 
now out of ]3rint, but are too long for a reprint here. Some idea of their 
character can be had from' the bibliographies printed under the head of the 
History of Political Economy. 

To Baltimore students it is an interesting fact that the same line of co-op- 
erative study in the history of the Italian Eenaissance has been followed by 
their former associate, H. W. Caldwell, and his students in the University 
of Nebraska. Admirable papers on "Savonarola" and "Erasmus" have 
been sent from Lincoln, Neb., to Baltimore for examination. It may be 
added, in this connection, that the courses in History under Professor George 
E. Howard and Instructor H. W. Caldwell, at the University of Nebraska, 
are among the most complete and the most modern in spirit, of any that 
are given in this country. The weak side, however, is insufficient attention 
to American history. 



48 New Methods of Study in History, 

his Praise of Folly ; the English Humanists, Grocyn, Linacre, 
and John Colet ; More's Utopia ; English and German Trans- 
lations of the Bible ; the Ideas of Wyclif and how they came 
to Bohemia ; John Huss ; The Relation of Peasant Revolts to 
the German Reformation; Character of Luther as revealed 
in his Table Talk; Roman Catholic Estimates of Luther; 
Character of Charles V ; Character of the German Princes ; 
Political Elements in the German Reformation ; Protestantism 
in Italy ; Catholic Reformation ; Ignatius Loyola ; the Council 
of Trent ; the Peace of Augsburg. 

French and English History. — Medicevcd Period, 

Caesar's Conquest of Gaul ; Life in Gaul in the Fifth Cen- 
tury ; Monastic Life in Merovingian Gaul ; the Northmen ; 
Cnut and Harald Haardrada; Lanfranc and Anselm; the 
Bayeux Tapestry ; Domesday ; Results of the Crusades ; Origin 
of Feudalism; Mediaeval Cathedrals; y^^crij^form and Chronicles; 
Conquest of Wales ; the Coming of the Friars into England ; 
Law-CourtSj circa 1200, in England; the Albigenses and the 
Crusade against them ; Military and Religious Orders ; IMont- 
fort in Gascony; London in the Fourteenth Century; Robert 
Bruce; Life on the Roads in England in the Fourteenth 
Century; the Popes at Avignon; Froissart; Wyclif 's Bible; 
the Paston Letters; Parliamentary Antiquities in the Four- 
teenth and Fifteenth Centuries ; Comparison of the Characters 
of Louis XI, Henry VII, and Ferdinand of Aragon; the 
States General of 1468 and 1484; the Relations of France 
and Scotland in the Fifteenth Century. 

International Law and Politics. 

Another recent phase of co-operative student-lectures at the 
Johns Hopkins University is that represented by a class of 
graduates pursuing a systematic course of instruction upon the 
Plistorical Development of International LaAv. The instructor 



New Methods of Study in History. 49 

considered such topics as the Intertribal and Intermunicipal 
Relations of the Orient (Evolution of the Family, Tribe, 
Village, and City ; Wars, Forays, Women Capture, Slave- 
Trade, and Commerce); the Intermunicipal Life of the 
Greeks (Federation of Demes and Cities, Hegemony, Inso- 
23olity, Municipal Hospitality, Oracles, Games, Festivals, 
Arbitration, Leagues, Relations with Persia and Rome); 
Rome, the civitas mundi (imperial tendency of Roman 
Institutions, Roman Law, Jus Gentium, Fetiales, Treaties, 
Roman Manicipia, Italian Republics); International Posi- 
tion of the Mediaeval Church (Municipal Origin of Church 
Government, Papal Rome, Church and State, Church 
Authority, Interdicts, Councils); Origin and Tendencies of 
[Modern International Law (Italian Beginnings, Commercial 
Law of Italian Republics, Intermunicipal Relations, Invasion 
of Italy, Rise of the State-System, Venetian Ambassadors, 
Thirty Years' War, Hugo Grotius, PufFendorf, Vattel,Wheaton, 
Lieber, Bluntschli). In connection with this historical survey 
of the growth of internationality a series of historical and insti- 
tutional lectures was given by members of the class; and, in 
connection with the exposition of Bluntschli's code of the 
JNIodern International Law of Civilized States, a similar course 
of student-lectures was given on Modern International Politics. 
The following select titles will indicate the character and scope 
of the two courses. 

I. Historical Course. — Carthaginian Commerce; Cartha- 
ginian Treaties ; Grecian Economics ; Grecian City Govern- 
ment ; the Aristocratic Character of Roman Institutions ; the 
Roman Municipal System ; International Influence of Roman 
Ethics ; International Influence of the Church ; International 
Influence of Chivalry and of the Crusades ; Theories of Church 
and State ; Phases of City Government in Florence ; the City 
Government of German Free Cities and the Rhenish League ; 
The Hanseatic League ; the Government of the Swiss Cantons ; 
the Federation of Switzerland; the Estates of Holland and 
their Federal Relations. 
7 



50 Neio Methods of Study in History, 

II. Political Course. — The Egyptian Question ; the Inter- 
national Association for the Control of African Trade and the 
River Congo ; France in the Touquin ; the Opening of China ; 
Character of Chinese Diplomacy ; the Opening and recent 
Progress of Japan ; Relations between Germany and the Vati- 
can; Papal Policy in America; Who should control the 
Panama Canal if there were one ; International Congresses ; 
the Question of an International Tribunal ; the Diplomacy of 
the United States versus the Indians ; the Relation of Politi- 
cal Ethics to International Law; the Theory of a World- 
State ; Freedom of the Sea and of Great Rivers ; the Amer- 
ican Fisheries ; the Monroe Doctrine in its relation to South 
American Republics ; Review of the present International 
Relations of the United States ; the American Hog in Diplo- 
macy ; Bismarck's Attitude towards the United States. 

History of Political Economy. 

The following subjects were given out by the wTiter in 1879 
to individual members of a class in the History of Political 
Economy, for private study. As far as possible original 
sources of information as well as the current literature on these 
subjects were examined by the respective appointees. After 
such examination the subjects were introduced for class con- 
sideration in the form of an oral report. The instructor 
usually questioned the appointee on matters connected with 
his report, and then discussed with the class the most inter- 
esting and suggestive points. A bibliography of the various 
subjects was prepared by the respective appointees, under 
supervision of the instructor, Avho worked with his students 
in classifying the resources of the various Baltimore libraries 
with reference to the topics in hand. These bibliographies 
were printed for class use and served a valuable purpose, 
although they were far from being complete. Good refer- 
ences were always sought after rather than mere lists of titles. 
In this connection, it may be remarked that one of the best 



New Methods of Study in History. 51 

exercises for the student-investigator is to prepare as good a 
bibliography of his subject as the library facilities of his 
environment can afford. He should examine each book, 
monograph, or magazine article sufficiently to enable him to 
tell his class-mates what the same represents. The subjects 
of research are here enumerated with their bibliographies, as 
originally printed, together wdth the names of the persons 
who prepared them. No attempt has been made to supple- 
ment these lists, which could easily be done by reference to 
the foot-notes in Dr. Ely^s authoritative work on " French 
and German Socialism '^ or by reference to the new edition of 
Poolers index and other bibliographical aids. These lists 
represent a certain historic phase of our economic work with 
undergraduates and were prepared in Baltimore libraries. 
The letters H and P refer respectively to the Johns Hopkins 
University and Peabody libraries. Other authorities were 
found in private collections. 

1. The Mercantile System. H. J. Bowdoin. 

LiTERATUKE. — 3Iun, England's treasure by foreign trade. H. P. Other 
English Mercantilists: Child. P. Sir W. Temple. 11. P. Steuart. H. P. 
Locke. P. — Roscher, Political Economy. H. Hoscher, Gesch. d. engl. volks- 
wirthschafts-lehre im 16 u. 17 jahrh. 3IiU, Principles of Polit. Econ. H. 
McCulloch, Principles of Political Economy. H. P. Blanqui, II. Ch. 
XXVII. H. Diet, de I'Econ. Politique, "Colbert." H. 

2. The System of the Physiocrats. A. F. Ja^mieson. 

Literature. — Quesnay, Tableau Economique, 1758. Turgot, Peflexions 
sur la formation et la distrib. des richesses, 1766-78. Miraheau, the Elder, 
L'ami des hommes, 1755-60. Mauvillon, La monarchic Prussienne, Ency- 
clopedie, 1756-57. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (Soger's edition). H. 
31. Kaufman, Socialism. Bk. II. ch. 11. H. P. Blanqui, Vol. II. H. Diet, 
de I'Econ. Pol., "Physiocrats." H. 

3. Adam Smith and the fundamental doctrines of English 

Economy. Stewart Linthicum. 

Literature. — Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations. H. P. Blanqui, Vol. II, 
p. 106. H. P. Shadivell, System of Political Economy. H. Thompson, 
Social Science and National Economy. H. McCulloch, Principles of Political 
Economy. H. P. Le centenaire d'Adam Smith, Journal, des Econ., July, 1876, 



62 New Methods of Study in History. 

V.43. H. Diet, de I'Econ. Pol. "Smith." H. Bagehot,Fovtmgh\\jB.eY., 
July, 1876, " Adam Smith." JSfasse, Das hmidertjiihrige jubiliium der Schrift 
V. Adam Smith iiber den reichthmn der nationen, Preus. Jahrbiicher, 
Oct. 1876. 

4. St. Simon and liis School. Lee Sale. 

Literature. — Works of St. Simon, especially, (1) Le nonveau Christi- 
anisme, (2) Catechisme des Industriels. H. Lerminier, Lettres Philoso- 
phiques VII., Des questions soulevees par le Saint-Simonisme, Bevue des 
Deux Mondes, 1832. Reyhaud, Socialistes Modernes, i, H., Les Saint- 
Simoniens, Eev. des Deux Mondes, 1836. Janet, Saint Simon, Le fondateur 
du socialisme, Pev. des Deux Mondes, Apr. 15, 1876. Janet, L'ecole Saint 
Simonienne, Bazard et Enfantin, Eev. des Deux Mondes, Oct. 1, 1876. 
Hillehrand, 'Die anfange des socialismus in Frankreich, 1830-48, Deutsche 
Eundschau, Dec. 1878. H. Blanqui, Vol. II., ch. XLIII. H. Huber, Social- 
ismus u. Kommunismus, Kleine Schriften or Bluntschli's Staatsworterbuch. 
H. North. Brit. Eev. 1848, No. 9. Westm. Eev. Apr. 1832. Diet, de 
I'Econ. Pol. H. 

6. Fourier's doctrines and his influence upon American Social- 
ism. E. C. KlCHAEDSON. 

Literature. — Fourier, Oeuvres completes. P. Blanqui, vol. 2, p. 258. H. 
J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy. Vol. I. pp. 274-277. H. M. 
Kaufman, Socialism, pp. 118-128. P. H. J. H. Noyes, History of American 
Socialisms. P. Parke Godwin, A popular view of the doctrines of Fourier, 
" Fourier," Fortnightly Eev. vol. 12, Essays 1. 2$ P. Fourierism, Christian 
Examiner, vol. 37, p. 57. P. Hawthorne, The Blitliedale Eomance. " Fou- 
rier," North Amer. Eev. Apr. 1879. Hillebrand, xinfiinge des Socialismus 
in Frankreich, 1830-48. Deutsche Eundschau, Dec. 1878. 

6. Communism in the United States. W. R. Stricklen. 

Literature. — Nordhoff, Communistic Societies in the U. S. H. Historische 
beschreibung der wahren inspirationsgemeinschaft. The Circular (Oneida, 
1854^74.) The Perfectionist (New Haven, 1834.) Handbook of the Oneida 
Community (N. Y., 1871.) Thomas Brown, An account of the people called 
"Shakers." Williams, The Harmony Society at Economy, Pa. James, 
Communism in America [Yale John A. Porter Prize Essay — Yale Law 
School.] Henry Holt & Co., 1879. H. 

7. Mediaeval Craft Guilds and Modern Trades Unions. J. H. 

Lowe. 

Literature. — Clode, Memorial of the guild of the merchant-tailors in the 
city of London. P. Toulmin Smith, English Guilds (Early Engl. Text Soc. 
No. 40). H. Comte de Paris, Trades Unions in England. Endeinann, Die 



Neio llethods of Study in History, 63 

entwickelung der handels-gesellscliaften. P. Clifford, Agricultural look-out. 
P. Thornton, On labor, Bk. 11. ch. 4, and Bk. III. chs. 1-5. P. Howell, 
Conflicts of labor and capital. H. Fortnightly Eev., vol. 6 (S. S.) Old 
guilds and new friendly societies, by Ludloiv. Quart. Pev. vol. 123. Trades 
Unions. Blackwood Mag., vols. 35, 43. North Amer. Pev. vol. 105. Howell, 
Contem. Pev., Oct. 1877. Chr. Meyer, Mittelalterliches u. modernes Biirger- 
thum, Preus. Jalirbiiclier, June, 1877. Chr. 3Ieyer, Zur gesch. d. deutsclien 
arbeiterstandes, Preus. Jahrbiicher, Jan. 1879, p. 26. Huber-Liebenau, Das 
deutsche zunftwesen im mittelalter, Samml. wis. Yortriige, 13 serie, heft. 312. 
Chr. Meyer, Die anfange der deutschen gewerbeverfassung, Preus. Jahrbii- 
cher, July, 1878. Stahl, Das deutsche handwerk u. die bedeutung der arbeiter- 
association in vergangenheit und gegenwart. Brentano, Hist, of Guilds. 
H. Schoenberg, zur wirthsch. bedeutung des deutschen zunftwesens. Trades 
Unions, Jour, des Econ., Oct., 1878. 

8. Robert Owen and English Workingmen's Associations. 

K. J. Hammoxd. 

Literature. — Life of JRobert Owen, Phila. 1866. P. Life of Robert Owen, 
by himself. Lond. 1857. vol. 1. P. A supplementary appendix to vol. 1, 
Lond. 1858. P. The Pamphleteer, vol. 10. Robert Owen, New view of 
society. JSTos. 1, 2. Robert Owen, Peport to commis. of assoc. for relief of 
manuf. and laboring poor. P. Holyoake, Co-operation in England. P. En- 
cyclop. Britan., " Co-operation." H. 

9. Sclmlze-Delitzch and Working Men's Associations in Ger- 

many for Self-help. C. E. Grammer. 

Literature. — llth report of trades union commissioners, pp. 165-178. 
By R. JD. Morier. Cooperative wholesale society report, 1873, pp. 115-117 ; 
1872, p. 101. The Cooperator, JS'os. 200, 203. Works of Schulze-Bditzch 
(F. A. Herbig, Berlin). Lassalle, M. Bastiatu. Schulze-Delitzch. Hughes, 
Working classes in Europe (Atlas-Essays). H. Journal des Economistes, 
Vol. I. p. 7. H. Samudson, The German working man. H. Schulze-Delitzch, 
Sociale rechte und pflichten, Sammlung wissensehaftl. Yortriige, Vol. I. P. 
Meyer's Konversations Lexicon, "Schulze-Delitzch" und "Genossen- 
schaften." H, 

10. Lassalle and German Social Democracy. G. F. Gephaet. 

Literature. — Lassalle's werke. Edinb. Pev., July, 1878. Nineteenth 
Century, Aug. and Oct. 1878; Feb. 1879. Fortnightly Pev., Feb. and 
March, 1879. North Amer. Pev., April, 1879. Contemporary Pev., May, 
1877. Eclectic Mag., Jan. 1879. Kaufman, Socialism. Deutsche Pund- 
schau, Feb. and March, 1878. Zeit und Streit Fragen, heft 108. Innocenz 
Simplex, Glaube des socialismus. Schuster, Social Demokratie. Schaeffie, 
Socialismus und kapitalismus. Briefe von Ferdinand Lassalle an Carl 
Rodbertus Jagetzow. " Lassalle," Pevue des deux mondes, Dec. 15, 1876. 



54 New Ifethods of Study in History ^ 

11. Karl Marx, the Internationalists, and the Commune of 

Paris. T. A. Berey. 

Literature. — K. Marx, Das Kapital ; Kritik der polit. oekonomie. H. 
Annual reports of the International, published in London. Hoscher, Polit- 
ical Economy — See " Marx." See also Gesch, der national oekonomik. E. 
E. Fribourg, L'association international des travailleurs. P. Villetard, His- 
toire de Tinternationale, P. (Translated by S. M. Day. Kew Haven, 
1874) H. Histoire de I'internationale, par un Bourgeois Eepublicain. P. 
Oscar Testut, L' Internationale. P. Oscar Testut, L' Internationale et le 
Jacobinisme, au ban de I'Europe. P. Jaeger, Der moderne socialismus u. 
Karl Marx. H. Jaeger, Geschichte der socialen bewegung u. des social- 
ismus in Frankreich. Woolsey, Political Science, Vol. I. p. 319. H. Eevue 
Contemporaine, A-^ol. 5, 1866, Une forme nouvelle du socialisme. P. Jour- 
nal des Economistes, Apr. 1875, Coup d'oeil historique sur I'internationale. 
H. Eev. des Deux Mondes, Sept. 1870, pp. 133-149, Le Socialisme con- 
temporaine en Allemagne. Fort. Rev. 1870, The international working- 
men's Association. North Amer. Pev., Apr., 1872, International Associa- 
tion. Pierotti, Decrets et rapjDorts officiels de la commune de Paris. Nation, 
Aug. 8, 15, 22, 1878, Socialism in Germany. Pundschau, Mar. 1879, p. 481. 

12. Distinction between Nihilists, Communists, and Socialists. 

W. J. Thomas. 

Literature. — Deutsche Eundschau, Aug. 1878, Nihilismus in Russland. 
Nineteenth Century, May, 1877, June, 1878, Russian revolutionary litera- 
ture ; the social origin of Pessimism and Nihilism in Germany. Fortnightly 
Rev. Nov. 1, 1878, Socialism in Germany and the U. S. North British 
Rev., Vol. II., p. 406, Socialism. Deutsche Rundschau, Feb. 1878, Deutsch- 
land und der Socialismus. Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1878-9, (A series of 
articles on German Socialism by Laveleye). Nuova Antologia, July, 1878, 
II Nihilismo. Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1876-7 (series) L' empire des Tsars 
et les Russes. 

» 

13. The Historical School, Socialists of the Chair, and the 

efforts of German professors to meet the just demands 
of Socialism. E. Goodman. 

Literature. — Knies, Die politische oekonomie vom standpunkte der 
geschichtlichen metliode. H. Hoscher, Principles of Political economy. H. 
Hildehrand, Die national oekonomie der gegenwart und zukunft. Hermann, 
Staatswirtlischaftliche untersuclumgen. Gncist,- Das reichsgesetz gegen die 
bestrebungen der socialdemokratie staatsreclitlich erortert, Holtzendorf, Die 
Principien der Politik. Worthnan, H. v. Treitschke und die Kathederso- 
cialisten. (Reprinted in Jahrl)ucher fiir Nat. oek., 16 Jahrgang, 1 Band, 1 
Heft.) H. E. de Laveleye, The new tendencies of Political Economy. (In 



New Methods of Study in History. 55 

Banker's Magazine, Feb. 8, 1878.) Schaeffle, Die quintessenz des socialismus. 
Block, Die quintessenz des Kathedersocialismus, Journal des Economistes, 
Nov. 1878. Zeit und Streit Fragen, No. 52, Las-peyres, Der Katliedersocial- 
ismus. Bamberger, Die culturgeschichtliche bedeutung des socialistengesetzes. 
Schoenherg, Die ziele und bestrebungen der socialdemokratie. Wagner, Rede 
liber die sociale frage. Leslie, The philosophical method of political economy, 
Flermathena, No. 4, P. and in his essays in Moral and Political Philosophy, 
H. ; Political Economy and Sociology, Fortnightly Eev. Jan., 1879. P. H. 
Ingram, Economic science and statistics. Journal of statistical Soc, Dec, 1878. 
H. P. Bagehot, Fortnightly Rev., Feb'y, 1876. Lowe, Recent attacks on 
Political Economy, Nineteenth Century, Nov., 1878. Held, Socialismus, 
Jahrb. fiir Gesetzgebung, 1 Bd., 1 Heft, 1877. H. 

14. Strikes. Jesse Hay. 

LiTEEATUBE. — Walker, The wages question. H. Quart. Rev., Yol. 106, 
No. 212, and Vol. 132, No. 268. Brit. Quart. Rev., Vol. 56, No. 110. North 
Amer. Rev., Vol. 116, No. 238 ; Vol. 105, No. 216, No. 258. Edinb. Rev., 
Vol. 59, No. 120 ; and Vol. 67, No. 135. Presbyter. Quart, and Princeton 
Rev., Oct., 1877. Black. Mag. Vol. 79, No. 483. Western Rev., Vol. 18, No. 
1 ; Vol. 20, No. 2. Goldwin Smith, Labor war in the U. S. Contem. Rev., 
Sept., 1877. Fried. Kapp, Der jiingste aufstand der Eisenbahnarbeiter in den 
vereinigten staaten, Preus. Jahrb., Oct., 1877. Bich. Vaux, Annual Report of 
the Secretary of Internal Affairs of the Com. of Penn Industrial Statistics, 
Part III. Vol. V. 1876-7, "Strikes." 

15. An historical survey of the distinctive doctrines of the 

leading English Economists since Adam Smith. N. 
Palmer. 

Literature. — McCidloch,T\ie literature of Political Economy. P. Blanqui, 
Economic politique. H. Kautz, Die geschichtliche entwickelung der na- 
tional-oekonomik und ihrer literatur. Jevons, The future of Polit. Econ., 
Fort. Rev., Nov. 1, 1876. 

16. The progress of economic science in the United States. 

A. C. Palmer. 

Literature. — Economic science in America. North American Rev., 
1876. Kautz, Die geschichtliche entwickelung der national oekonomik. 

A similar co-operative course in the History of Political 
Economy was undertaken and is still conducted by Dr. P. T. 
Ely, of the Johns Hopkins University. A product of this 
latter course is a volume on " French and German Socialism 
in Modern Times/' (Harper & Brothers, 1883). The book 



56 New 3fethods of Study in History. 

^' is based on lectures delivered in Baltimore before the students 
of the Johns Hopkins University and in Ithaca before the 
students of Cornell University." Although strictly Dr. 
Ely's own work and not the work of his students, the book 
was written in an atmosphere of student co-operation and 
student inquiry in the same field. 

This work is now advancing along the lines of Christian 
Socialism and American Communism and Socialism. For 
the former topic Dr. Ely has obtained fresh materials from 
Thomas Hughes and other English sources. For the latter 
topic the socialistic and communistic newspapers published in 
this country, and the socialistic organizations that exist in 
some of our lara^e cities^ are fountain heads of information. 
On one occasion Dr. Ely took representatives of his class to 
hear the address given to Baltimore workingmen by Most, 
the German communist, and was sharply criticised by one of 
the German papers for so doing. But this is the true way to 
investigate Communism. Dr. Ely has lately given a lecture 
upon some of the more recent phases of American Socialism, 
based upon a collection of American socialistic tracts, pam- 
phlets and newspapers which he has been gathering for over 
a year. He is now preparing, with the co-operation of some 
of his advanced students, a monograph upon the history of 
political economy in the United States, and by himself, a 
larger work upon the history of political economy in general. 

Mr. Albert Shaw, one of our graduate students, prepared 
his monograph on " Icaria : '' a chapter in the history of 
American communism (soon to be published in this series) 
not simply by reading Nordhoft's Communistic Societies in 
America, but by going in person to an Icarian community in 
south-western Iowa, and there interviewing Jean Baptiste 



^ Henry A. James, author of a Yale John A. Porter Prize Essay (1878) 
on "Communism in America" (New York, PI. Holt & Co., 1879), gathered 
material for his work by interviewing the communists in their city-haunts. 
A similar paper on "American Socialism" Avas jjreparecl in the same way 
by Mr. James for the Historical and Political Science Association of the 
Johns Hopkins University. 



New Methods of Studij in History. 57 

Gerard, A. A. Marchand, and other old associates of Cabet. 
ISIr. Sliaw spent a week with these men. He read, in com- 
munistic libraries, the original French literature upon the 
subject of Icaria, rare tracts by Cabet ; there he had access to 
Frencli newspapers edited by Cabet, and to a set of the Revue 
Icarienne, published at Kauvoo, Illinois, that comfortable old 
]\Iormon nest into which the Icarians, for a time, settled 
down in peace and prosperity. In those simple agrarian com- 
munities of our western country, Mr. Shaw found some of 
the now harmless factors of the Paris Commune of 1871, men 
of the keenest intellect and boldest ambitions, professedly still 
busy with their schemes and correspondence, but really vege- 
tating upon the broad prairies and going quietly to seed as 
excellent farmers and good citizens. 

Political Economy. 

In Political Economy proper, as well as in the History of 
Political Economy, the same method of original research and 
student-lectures is pursued with gratifying results. Among 
the graduate efforts in this department have been lectures on 
Predecessors of Adam Smith in England, Adam Smith, the 
Theory of Population, the Economic Functions of Govern- 
ment, the Physiocrats, Jean Baptiste Say, Bastiat, Political 
Economy in America previous to Henry C. Carey, the Carey 
School of Political Economy, American Economics since 
Henry C. Carey, the National Banking System, the Income 
Tax, the Financial History of the United States during the 
Civil War, effects of the reduction of the Internal Rev- 
enue Taxes upon the Baltimore consumer, the Financial 
Plistory of Baltimore, Finances of Kentucky, Finances of 
Pennsylvania. Among undergraduate efforts have been dis- 
cussions of the Formation and Growth of Capital, Pent, 
Wages, Interest, Bimetallism and Monometallism, Com- 
munistic Experiments in the United States, Independent 
Treasmy, Direct and Indirect Taxation. 
8 



a 



58 New Methods of Study in History. 

This method of co-operative class-work in Political Economy 
is pursued with great success by Professor Henry C. Adams, 
at Cornell and Michigan Universities. The students prepare 
j^apers or reports on special themes connected with the regular 
work. The professor himself gives systematic courses of class- 
lectures, elementary and advanced. The elementary course, to 
be given this year (1884) at Cornell, "will consider the history 
and development of economic thought since 1550, the basis of 
political economy, production, exchange, and distribution. 
The advanced course will be upon practical economic prob- 
lems of the present time, among which will be the questions 
of free trade and the tariif. Professor Adams accepts very 
largely the views of the English economists on the tariff ques- 
tion. He will consider the analysis of international trade as 
compared with domestic trade, for the purpose of determining 
whether the principles which regulate the one apply, without 
modification, to the other. He will consider also the theory 
of protection, the theory of free trade, reciprocity, protection 
in its relation to public revenue, tariff legislation in the United 
States, the order in which modifications in the existing tariff 
should be undertaken, and the rapidity with which the country 
may, without disaster, be brought to the realization of its just 
policy. Professor Adams first proposes to state the problem 
of the tariff on both sides, then ask the student to study 
the various industries in the countrv to determine how 
far they are self-supporting and what ones need protec- 
tion, finishing with a few lectures on the history of the 
tariff in the United States."^ At Michigan University Dr. 
Adams has conducted similar courses and, in his Financial 
Seminary, has encouraged co-operative studies among his 
pupils, particularly in Avritiug the History of American 
Taxation. 



'Extract from tlie letter of an Ithaca correspondent published in the New 
York Tribune, Feb. 13, 1884. 



New Ilethods of Study in History. 59 

American Histoey. 

The same method is pursued in the study of American 
History by graduate students, Avho co-operate with their 
instructor in surveying the colonial and constitutional fields. 
On this home-groundj student-lectures, based upon an exam- 
ination of existing authorities and certain orio^inal materials, 
lead gradually to independent investigations and thus to sci- 
entific contributions to the Seminary, if not to the Univer- 
sity Studies in Historical and Political Science. Without 
quoting, in this connection, the topics in American Institu- 
tional and Colonial History, lately pursued by a class of grad- 
uate students at the Johns Hopkins University, I would call 
attention to the new departure^ recently made at Harvard 
University, in the co-operative study of American Constitu- 
tional History by a class of undergraduate students (Sopho- 
mores and Juniors) under the direction of Dr. Albert B. Hart, 
a former pujDil of Von Hoist's at the University of Freiburg, 
where Mr. Hart lately took his degree as doctor of phi- 
losophy. 

Dm'ing the present academic year at Harvard University, 
the instructor has given his class a systematic course of lec- 
tures upon the outlines of American Constitutional History. 
A syllabus or analysis of this course, together with a list of 
authorities and an elaborate system of references w^as j)re- 
pared by Dr. Hart and was printed by the class at its own 



^ This new departure was quickened by earlier efforts. The success of Dr. 
Freeman Snow's course, in 1882-83, on the Constitutional and Political 
History of the United States was very remarkable in point of attendance. 
There were 163 who followed the lectures, including 1 graduate, 85 seniors, 
62 juniors, 8 sophomores, 6 specials, and 1 scientific. The character of the 
course was of a high order, if one may judge from the published "Guide 
to the study of the Constitutional and Political History of the United States," 
(Cambridge, W. H. Wheeler, 1882-3) which was intended as the basis of 
the lectures and for the encouragement of private study. This outline 
history of the United States Constitutional History with historical references 
is among the most serviceable yet prepared. 



60 New Methods of Study in History. 

expense. The lectures considered sucli preliminary conceptions 
as History, definitions of a constitution and characteristics of 
a State ; the Constitution of England at the outbreak of the 
Revolution; Institutions of the United States derived from 
England ; the Colonists, their government and relations with 
England, early schemes for a Union of the Colonists ; Colonial 
Union ; Independence ; formation of the Confederation ; con- 
flicts of the Confederation Vvdth the States ; weakness of the 
States ; proposed amendments of the articles of Confederation ; 
the Constitutional Union ; scope of the Constitution ; origin 
and nature of the Constitution ; organization of the Govern- 
ment; early Constitutional questions; Acts putting into effect 
clauses of the Constitution ; questions relating to the States ; 
Constitutional questions of national policy ; Washington's first 
Administration ; foreign relations with France and England ; 
the Whiskey Rebellion ; the Jay treaty ; Legislation ; Rela- 
tions with Spain ; Alien and Sedition Acts ; Virginia and 
Kentucky Resolutions; the Supreme Arbiter; interposition 
as a remedy for usurpation ; fall of the Federal party ; policy 
of the Republican party ; the Public Lands ; the Louisiana 
annexation. 

Thus far the course has advanced. The printed syllabus is 
significant in various ways. It represents, first and foremost, 
a leading mind, well-trained by a great master in American 
Constitutional History, and guiding the thoughts of students 
into the most profitable channels. It signifies in itself a clean- 
cut, sharply-defined, well-arranged collection of historical 
topics. There are divisions and sub-divisions to each general 
head, with references on almost every important point. The 
following is a conspectus of the various aspects from which 
the general topic of Independence was presented by the 
lecturer. Ab uno disce omnes. 

Independence. 

1. Early Suggestions. — Chalmer's charge. Froth. 154 n. 
— Denied by the colonists. John Adanis X, 394. — Foreign 



New Methods of Study in History. 61 

predictions. De Witfs Jefferson^ 40, 408 ; Froth. — Censured 
up to 1775. Von Hoist 1,2. 

2. Prepaeatory Steps. 

1775. May 31. Mecklenburg Resolutions. Froth. 42^ n. 
Xov. 3. Advice to jN^. H. to form a gov't. Froth. 

447-8. 

1776. Mar. 23-Ma7 14. Instr. of six states. Froth. 528, 

499-511. 

May 15. Congress adopts tlie principle of indepen- 
dence. J". C. II, 160, 166, 174. 

June 11-21. Committee to draft. Froth. 513-17. 
Further instructions. Froth. 521-30. 

July 4. Declaration of Independence. 

3. Nature axd Bearixg. 

a. Statement of certain "Self-evident truths." Vast influ- 
ence, but no legal, binding force. 
h. Statement of grievances. Ex-parte. 

c. Statement of the independence and sovereignty of the 

colonies : a political fact, not yet proved. 

d. The achievement of the whole for all. Story, § 211. 

Xew State Goyerxmexts. Texts in Cliarters and 
Consfs. 

1775. "Transylvania." Froth. 444. 

1776. Jan. 5. JST. H. J. C. I. 231 ; Froth. 493, 567. 
Mar. 26. S. C. J. C. L 235 ; Froth. 494. 

May 4. R. I. Froth. 565. — (May or June) Conn. 
June 29. Ya. J. C. I, 279 ; Froth. 511-12. 
July 2. N. J. Froth. 564. 

Mass. J. a I, 115; Froth. 428, 441, 491, 
506. 
Sept. 26. Del. Froth. 504. 

Sept. 28. Pa. Am. Archives V, ii, 54; Froth. 565. 
Oct. 18. N. C. Fr. 566. 
Nov. 8. Md. Froth. 564. 

1777. ApL20. KY. i^rof/i. 451, 566.— Yt. J/cJ/. 7, 347. 



62 New Methods of Study in History. 

Unioit older than the States. Three theories. 

1. Particularist view. Calhoun I, 190. 

2. Temporary alliance view. Jefferson in Von Hoist I, 7 n. 

3. JN^ational view. Lincoln in Cong. Globe, 1861, Spec. Sess. 

App. 

Every student in the class is expected to consult at least 
one of the authorities mentioned in connection with each head- 
ing printed in small capitals. The other references are 
merely recommended. Islv. Hart writes that he encourages 
the preparation of theses, suggests subjects to those who ask 
for them, and explains the best methods of work. The fol- 
lowing topics for original research have been undertaken by 
members of the class in American History, in co-operation 
with the class-course given by the instructor. Such under- 
graduate work as this lies upon the borders of the Seminary 
method and will lead to the most advanced lines of study : 

Hamilton as a ^N'ew York Politician ; Madison in Virginia 
Politics; Jefferson as a Virginia Politician; Influence of 
James Wilson in the Federal Constitution ; History of the 
Nomination of Presidential Candidates ; the Relation of the 
President to his advisers ; Encroachments on the Executive 
Power ; History of Amendments to the Constitution ; Instruc- 
tion of Senators; Schemes of Disunion before 1860; Schemes 
for the Annexation of Cuba ; Sales of Public Lands ; History 
of the Debt of the U. S. ; History of the Internal Revenue of 
the U. S. ; Repudiation of State Debts; the Disposition of 
Surplus Revenue ; Railroad Land Grants ; Banking Systems 
in the U. S.; International Relations of the Colonies; Fries' 
Insurrection ; Dorr Rebellion ; Campaigns of Jacob Brown ; 
French Spoliation Claims; Spanish Treaty of 1819; Slave 
Insurrections ; Fugitive Slave Cases ; Slavery in the Free 
States ; the Slave Trade ; History of State Boundaries. 

Mr. Hart has printed a few suggestions for thesis writers 
which deserve circulation among all friends of good historical 
methods. 



New Methods of Study in History. 63 

Suggestions for Thesis Writers. 

1. Be sure you are willing to do the necessary woek. 

2. Select a subject wliicli interests you, if possible in a lim- 
ited field, but over a long period. 

2. Begin by noting the chief authorities. 
a. Furnished by the instructor. 
h. In Poolers Index, 
c. In the Subject Catalogue. 
Write the title, author (with initials), place and date. 

4. Have a system of xote taking. 

a. Note only one subject on each j)iece of paper. 

b. ]S[ote the authority for each quotation or abstract, vol- 
ume and page. 

c. Preferably use loose sheets, arranging as you go. 

5. From the general authorities, make out a synopsis of the 
chief points which are to be studied, observing : 

a. ^New authorities and references for extension of details ; 

h. Chronological development ; 

c. Salient sub-heads of your subject. 

6. Extend the details which appear to you to need further 
examination. If necessary make synopses of the sub-heads. 
]\Iake references for other sub-heads, but abstract them 
later. 

7. Arrange your sheets of notes in a logical form, sub-heads 
under main heads. Choose between chronological, or topical 
arrangement, or a combination. 

8. Compose the thesis. 

a. First settling the proportions. 
h. Introducing striking quotations. 

c. Giving exact references for all important statements of 
fact. 

9. Add a bibliography of authorities with brief remarks on 
the bearing of the most important. 



64 New Methods of Study in History. 

4.— THE SEMINAEY METHOD. 

Tlie Seminar ium, like the college and the university, is of 
ecclesiastical origin. Historically speaking, the seminary was 
a nursery of theology and a training-school for seminary 
priests. The modern theological seminary has evolved from 
the mediaeval institution, and modern seminary-students, 
whether at school or at the university, are only modifications 
of the earlier types. The Church herself early began the 
process of differentiating the ecclesiastical seminary for the 
purposes of secular education. Preachers became teachers, 
and the propaganda of religion prepared the way for the pro- 
paganda of science. The seminary method of modern univer- 
sities is merely the development of the old scholastic method 
of advancing philosophical inquiry by the defence of original 
theses. The seminary is still a training-school for doctors of 
philosophy ; but it has evolved from a nursery of dogma into 
a laboratory of scientific truth. 

A young American, Professor of Greek at Dartmouth 
College, John Henry Wright, in an admirable address on the 
Place of Original Kesearch in College Education, explains 
very clearly the transitional process from the theological 
seminary to the scientific seminary. ^'The seminaries were 
instituted that theological students, Avho expected to teach on 
the way to their profession, might receive special pedagogical 
training in the subjects in which they would be called upon 
to give instruction in the schools. As the subject-matter of 
liberal instruction was mainly the languages and literatures 
of Greece and Rome, the seminaries became philological in 
character. Tlie first seminary that actually assumed the 
designation of philological was that founded at Goettiugen in 
1733, by Gesner the famous Latinist. This seminary has 
been, in many respects, the model for all later ones." ^ 

^ An address on The Place of Oriojinal Research in College Education, by- 
John Henry Wright, Associate Professor of Greek in Dartmouth College, 



New Methods of Study in History. 65 

The transformation of the Seminarium into a laboratory of 
science was first accomplished more than fifty years ago by 
Germany's greatest historian, Leopold von Ranke. He was 
born in the year 1795 and has been Professor of History at 
the University of Berlin since 1825. There, about 1830, he 
instituted those practical exercises in historical investigation 
[exereitationes historieae) which developed a new school of 
historians. Such men as Waitz, Giesebrecht, Wattenbach, Von 
Sybel, Adolph Schmidt, and Duncker owe their methods to 
this father of historical science. Through the influence of 
these scholars, the historical seminary has been extended 
throughout all the universities in Germany and even to insti- 
tutions beyond German borders. Let us consider a few sem- 
inary types. 

Heidelberg Seminaries. 

At the university of Heidelberg, as elsewhere in Germany, 
there are seminaries for advanced training in various depart- 
ments of learning, chiefly, however, in jDhilology and in other 
historical sciences. The philological seminary, where the use 
of the Latin language for formal discussion is still maintained 
at some universities, is perhaps the connecting link between 
mediaeval and modern methods of scholastic trainins:. In the 
Greek seminary of the late Professor Koechly, at Heidelberg 
the training was pre-eminently pedagogical. The members of 
the seminary took turns in occupying the Professor's chair for 
one philological meeting, and in expounding a classical author 
by translation and comment. After one man had thus made 
trial of his abilities as an instructor, all the other members 



read before the National Educational Association, Department of Higher 
Instruction, July 14, 1882, Saratoga, JSF. Y. From the Transactions, 1882. 
This address and Prof. E. Emerton's recent contribution on " The Historical 
Seminary in American Teaching," to Dr. G. Stanley Hall's volume on 
Methods of Teaching and Studying History, are the best American author- 
ities on the Seminary Method. 

9 



QQ New Methods of Study in History, , 

took turns in criticising his performance, the Professor judging 
the critics and saying what had been left unsaid. 

In the historical seminary of Professor Erdmannsdoerffer, 
the method was somewhat different. It was less formal and 
less pedagogical. Instead of meeting as a class in one of the 
university lecture-rooms, the historical seminary, composed of 
only six men, met once a week in a familiar way at the 
Professor's own house, in his private study. The evening's 
exercise of two hours consisted in the critical exposition of the 
Latin text of a mediaeval historian, the Gesta Frederici Imper- 
atoris, by Otto, Bishop of Freising, who is the chief original 
authority upon the life and times of Frederic Barbarossa. As 
in the Greek seminary, so here, members took turns in con- 
ducting the exercises, which, however, had less regard for 
pedagogical method than for historical substance. Each man 
had before him a copy of the octavo edition of Bishop Otto's 
text, and the conductor of the seminary translated it into 
German, with a running comment upon the subject matter, 
which he criticised or explained in the light of parallel citations 
from other authors belonging to Bishop Otto's time, who are to 
be found in the folio edition of Pertz's jilonumenta Germaniae 
Hlstorica. 

From this method of conducting the seminary, it would 
appear as though one man had all the work to do for a single 
evening, and then could idly listen to the others until his own 
turn came once more. But it was not so. Subjects of dis- 
cussion and for special inquiry arose at every meeting, and the 
Professor often assigned such subjects to the individuals most 
interested, for investigation and report. For example, he 
once gave to an American student the subject of Arnold of 
Brescia, the Italian reformer of the twelfth century, who was 
burnt to death in Rome in 1155, having been delivered up to 
the pope by Frederic Barbarossa. Tlie investigation of the 
authorities upon the life-work of this remarkable reformer, 
the precursor of Savonarola and of Luther, occupied the 
student for many weeks. On another occasion, Seminary dis- 



New 3fethods of Study in History. 67 

cnssion turned upon the origin of the Italian Communes, 
whether thev were of Roman or of Germanic origin. An 
American student, who had been reading Guizot's view upon 
the origin of municipal liberty, ventured to support the Roman 
theory. The Professor referred the young man to Carl HegeFs 
work on the Constitution of Italian Cities and to the writino;s 
of Von Maurer. That line of investigation has occupied the 
American student ever since 1876, and the present work of 
the historical seminary at the Johns Hopkins University is to 
some extent the outgro\^i;h of the germ brought to Baltimore 
from the Heidelberg seminary. 

Bluntschli's Seminary. 

As an illustration of seminary -work, relating more esj^ec- 
ially to modern history and modern politics, may be mentioned 
the private class conducted for two hours each week in one of 
the university rooms by the late Dr. J. C. Bluntschli, professor 
of constitutional and international law at Heidelberg. In his 
seminarv, the exercises were in what mio^ht be called the com- 
parative constitutional history of modern European states, 
with special reference to the rise of Prussia and of the new 
German empire. Bluntschli himself always conducted the 
meetings of the seminary. Introductory to its special work, 
he gave a short course of lectures upon the history of absolute 
government in Prussia and upon the influence of French and 
English constitutional reforms upon Belgium and Germany. 
He then caused the seminary to compare in detail the Belgian 
constitution of 1830 with the Prussian constitution of 1850. 
Each member of the seminary had before him the printed 
texts, which were read and compared, while Bluntschli com- 
mented upon points of constitutional law that were suggested 
by the texts or proposed by the class. After some weeks' dis- 
cussion of the general principles of constitutional government, 
the seminary, under Bluntschli's skilful guidance, entered 
upon a special and individual study of the relations between 



68 New Methods of Study in History. 

church and state^ in the various countries of Europe, but with 
particular reference to Belgium and Prussia, which at that 
time were much disturbed by conflicts between the civil and 
the ecclesiastical power. Individual members of the seminary 
reported the results of their investigations, and interesting 
discussions always followed. The result of this seminary- 
work was an elaborate monograph by Bluntschli himself upon 
the legal responsibility of the Pope, a tractate which the 
Ultramontane party thought inspired by Bismarck, but which 
really emanated from co-operative studies by master and pupils 
in the Heidelberg seminary. 

Seminary of Political Economy. 

At Heidelberg a seminary in political economy is conducted 
by Professor Knies, who may be called the founder of the 
historical method as applied to this department. His work on 
Politische-oekonomie vom Standpunkt der geschichtlichen 
Methode was published in 1853 and ante-dates the great work 
of Koscher by one year. The seminary method encouraged 
by Knies consists chiefly in the reading and discussion of 
original papers by his pupils upon assigned topics. The latter 
were sometimes of a theoretical but quite frequently of an 
historical character. I remember that such topics as Turgot's 
economic doctrines were often discussed. The various theories 
of wealth, from the French mercantilists and physiocrats down 
to Henry C. Carey, were examined. The meetings of the 
seminary were held every week and Avere not only of the 
greatest service in point of positive instruction, but also, in 
every way, of a pleasant, enjoyable character. Men learned 
to know one another as well as their professor. A most 
valuable feature of the seminaries in political science at 
Heidelberg was a special library, quite distinct from the 
main university library. Duplicate copies of the books 
that were in greatest demand were at the service of the 
seminary. 



New Methods of Study in History. 69 

The Historical Seminary at Bonn.^ 

The object of this seminary, as of all German historical 
seminaries, is to introduce special students to the best methods 
of original research. The Bonn seminary is one of the most 
flourishing in all Germany. It is an endowed institution. It 
was instituted in the year 1865 and enjoys the income of a 
legacy of forty thousand marks left it by Professor Wilhelm 
Piitz. The income is devoted to three stipends, each of about 
600 marks, for students of history and geography who have 
successfully pursued one or both • of these sciences for two 
years. Said stipends are awarded annually by the philosoph- 
ical faculty upon recommendation by the director of the sem- 
inary. It is said that a student of Bonn university has a 
better chance of obtaining such stipend than does a candidate 
from outside. In addition to this endowment of ten thousand 
dollars, the Bonn seminary of history is allowed a special 
appropriation, in the annual university budget, for general 
expenses, for increasing the seminary library, and for the 
director's extra salary. Any unused balance from the fund 
devoted to general expenses is expended for library purposes. 

The historical seminary of Bonn has now four sections, 
each under the guidance of a professor, representing a special 
field of history. The four professors constitute a board of 
control for the entire seminary. The director is appointed 
from year to year, the four professors rotating in the executive 
office. The student membership for each section is restricted 
to twelve. The meetings occur once a week, from 5 to 7 
o'clock in the evening. All members are expected to be 
present, although no individual student makes more than one 
contribution during a semester. Members are subject to 
expulsion by the board of control for failure to discharge any 
obligations, for inadequate work, or for mis-use of the library. 



^ See L'Universite cle Bonn et Tenseignenient superieur en AUemagne, 
par Edmond Dreyfus-Brisac, (editor of the Eevue international de I'enseigne- 
ment). " Les Seminaires." 



70 New Methods of Study in History. 

The library consisted, in 1879, of 308 works, and was kept 
in the charge of one of the members of the seminary. Among 
the books noticed by Dreyfus-Brisac, at the the time of his 
visit, were the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Fragmenta 
Historicorum Grsecornm, Corpns Inscriptionnm Latinarum, 
Corpus Inscriptionnm Atticarum, the complete works of 
Luther, the Annales Ecclesiastici edited by Baronius, Corpus 
Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Muratori's Script ores Rerum 
Italicarum, The Glossary of JNIedi^eval Latin, by Ducange, a 
set of Sybel's Historische Zeitschrift, Forschungen (Munich), 
the writings of Curtius, M'ommsen, Ranke, Sybel, etc. 

Dreyfus-Brisac mentions other seminaries at Bonn Univer- 
sity, notably that of the late Professor Held in Political 
Economy, held privately in his own house, and the pedagog- 
ical seminary of Bona-Meyer. The observing, critical French- 
man says that he knoAvs of nothing more remarkable in 
German educational methods, nothing more worthy of imita- 
tion, than the seminaries of Bonn. 

An American Student on German Seminaries. 

Dr. Charles Gross,^ an American student who has recently 
taken the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Goettingen in 
the department of History, with the highest honors, and who 
is now studying English Municipal History in the British 
Museum, has written by request the followkig account of Ger- 
man historical seminaries, in which he has had long and 
varied experience : '' The German historical seminary aims 
to inculcate the scientific method. It is the workshop in 



^ Dr. Gross jiresented for his doctor's dissertation at Goettingen a thesis 
on the Gilda Mercatoria, an important contribution to English municipal 
history, originally suggested by the late Professor Pauli. The subject has 
an interesting bearing upon the mercliant associations, which furnished 
men, capital, and government for the English colonies in America. Dr. 
Gross is now writing an Introduction to American Municipal liistory, to be 
published in this series. 



New Methods of Study in History. 71 

which the experienced master teaches his young apprentices 
the deft use of the tools of the trade. In the lecture room the 
professor presents the results of his investigations; in the 
Seminar (or Uehimgen) he shows just what he had to do in 
order to secure those results. The German student lays far 
more stress upon his seminar than upon his lectures. He may 
" cut ^^ the latter for weeks at a time^ while he is very assidu- 
ous in his attendance upon the former. The latter may be 
obtained from books or from the Heft of some more conscien- 
tious student ; but the scientific method, the German maintains, 
is the gift of time and the seminary only, — the result of long 
contact between the mind of the master and the mind of the 
disciple. 

^' Two different kinds of work predominate in the German 
historical seminary : the writing of short theses [Kleine Arheiten) 
or the critical reading of some document or documents, more 
frequently of some chronicler or chroniclers. The professor 
selects a list of subjects for theses from the field of his special 
line of investigation and assigns them to the students, the 
latter's particular tastes being generally consulted. A mem- 
ber of the seminary rarely has more than one thesis during 
the semester, frequently not more than one during the year, 
and during his first two or three semesters none at all. The 
professor points out the sources and authorities, and the 
student consults with him whenever difficulties arise in the 
preparation of the work. One or two critics {Referenten) are 
appointed for each thesis, who comment upon the production 
after it has been read. A free discussion of the subject then 
follows, the professor and students doing all in their power to 
show the utter lack of Wissenschaft in the author's method. 

^^As regards the other element of seminary work, viz., crit- 
ical reading of some chronicler, to each student is assigned a 
certain portion of the text, which, — with the aid, if neces- 
sary, of other contemporaneous sources pointed out to him by 
the professor — he is expected to treat in accordance with 
the canons of historical criticism, the other students commenting 
ad libitum. 



72 New Methods of Study in History, 

" N"ow these two elements are variously combined in differ- 
ent Seminars. Generally both are carried on side by side, 
an hour perhaps being taken up with the thesis and the other 
hour of the session with some text. (That, e. g., is the plan of 
Prof. Bresslau of Berlin). Sometimes the seminary is divided 
into two sections, one for the Kleine Arheiten and the other 
for the critical manipulation of some chronicler (e. g. Giese- 
brecht's Seminar in Munich). Sometimes one of the two ele- 
ments is excluded (v. Noorden in Berlin had no theses in my 
day ; Droysen nothing but theses). Sometimes the students 
are not required to do any work at all, the professor simply 
commenting upon some text for an hour or two. (That was 
Weizsacker's and Pauli's method).'^ 

Paul rR]6DERicQ on German Lectures and Historical 

Seminaries. 

One of the best accounts of German university instruction 
in history is that given by Paul Fr^dericq, Professor in the 
University of Liege, Belgium. He made two excursions to 
German university-centres in the years 1881 and 1882, and 
published a most instructive article in the Revue de V instruction 
publique [superieur et moyenne) en Belgique, in 1882. The 
article is entitled, De V enseignement superieur de Vliistoire. ^ It 
will probably be soon translated for publication in America. 
M. Fr6dericq visited Berlin, Halle, Leipzig, and Goettingen. 
He describes, in a pleasant way, the various lectures that he 
attended, the professors he met, and the methods that he learned. 
To one acquainted with life at the Berlin university, its profes- 
sors of history, and its lecture-courses, M. Fredericq^s picture 
seems almost perfect. One sees again, in fancy, Heinrich von 



' Another good authority upon the subject of German seminaries is M. 
Charles Seignobos, of Dijon, France, in his critical article on 1' enseignement 
dc I'histoire dans les universitds allemandes, published in the Revue interna- 
tionale de I' enseignement, June 15, 1881. Cf. pp. 578-589. 



New Methods of Study in History, 73 

TreitscLke, tlie brilliant publicist and eloquent orator, with bis 
immense audiences, everyone of them an enthusiastic seminary 
of Prussian Politics. The following felicitous sketch of Gustav 
Droysen will be appreciated by all who have seen that distin- 
guished professor in the Katheder : '^ Je le vols encore, tenant 
en main un petit cahier de notes a converture bleue et accoud6 
sur un grossier pu^Ditre carr^, exhausse au moyen d'une allonge, 
qui se dressait a un demi-m^tre au-dessus ' de la chaire. II 
commen9a a mi-voix, a la maniere des grands predicateurs 
francais, afin d'obtenir le silence le plus complet. On aurait 
entendu voler une mouche. Penche sur son petit cahier bleu 
et promenant sur son auditoire des regards penetrants qui 
peryaient les verres de ses lunettes, il parlait des falsifications 
dans I'histoire. ... A chaque instant une plaisanterie tr^s 
r^ussie, toujours mordante et aceree, faisait courir un sourire 

discret sur tons les bancs JY admiral la verve 

caustique, la clart6 et la nettete des apercus, ainsi que I'habilete 
consomm^e avec laquelle le professeur lisait ses notes, de 
maniere a faire croire a une improvisation." 

The historical seminary conducted by Professor Droysen is 
one of the best at the University of Berlin. Although 
Professor Fredericq failed to obtain access to tMs seminary as 
well as to that of Mommsen's, being told gu' on y exercait une 
critique si sevb^e, si hnpitoyable que la presence d^un etranger 
Hait impossible, yet he quotes in a work^ more recent than the 
article above mentioned the observations made in 1874 by his 
colleague. Professor Kurth, of Liege: "JM. Droysen, dans sa 
Societe liistorique, tient aux travaux ecrits, parce qu^ ils semblent 
donner plus de consistance aux etudes et que c'est quelque 
chose qui reste; ils fournissent plus facilement I'objet d'une 
discussion, ils font mieux apprecier le degr^ de force d^une 
6l^ve ainsi que ses aptitudes scientifiqes; enfin, ils permettent 



^ De I'enseignement superieur de Tliistoire en Belgique, XY. Published 
as an introduction to the Travaux du Cours Pratique d'BQstoire National de 
Paul Fredericq. [Gand et La Have, 1883.] 

10 



74 New 3fethods of Study in History. 

a ses condisciples de profiter mieux de son travail. La correc- 
tion de celui-ci en effet, est coniiee a un autre eleve qui^ sous 
les auspices du professeur, en critique les erreurs et le discute 
dans la reunion suivante avec Fauteur; de la, des controverses 
souvent animees, auxquelles chaque assistant pent prendre part, 
et qui ofPrent I'aspect d^une veritable vie scientifique/^ 

M. Fredericq describes with evident pleasure the privilege 
he enjoyed, through the courtesy of George Waitz, in being 
admitted to the latter 's seminary, held every Wednesday 
evening, for two hours, in his own house. The seminary 
consisted ' of nine students. They were seated at two round 
tables, which were loaded with books. The students had at 
command the various chronicles relating to the times of Charles 
Martel. The exercise consisted in determining the points of 
a2:reement and disa<yreement amono^ orij^inal authorities, with 
reference to a specific line of facts, in how far one author had 
quoted from another, &g. ^'The professor asked questions in 
a quiet way, raised objections, and helped out embarrassed 
pupils with perfect tact and with a kindly serenity." M. 
Fredericq noticed how, at one time, when a student had made 
a really original observation, the professDr took out his pencil 
and made a note of it upon the margin of his copy of the 
chronicle. In such simple ways the spirit of independent 
thought and original research is encouraged by one of the 
greatest masters. George Waitz is the successor of G. H. 
Pertz as editor of the Monumenta Germaniae Hlstorica. To 
see upon the professor's desk great bundles of printer's proofs 
for this vast work, only deepened M. Fr6d6ricq's impressions 
that here in this private study was really a workshop of Ger- 
man historical science. 

Seminaries of Art and Archjeology. 

M. Fredericq describes another phase of historical training 
which is eminently worthy of imitation in all colleges or uni- 
versities, where there is convenient access to an archaeological 



New Methods of Study in History. 75 

museum. Ernst Curtius is perhaps even more famous in 
Berlin as a classical archaeologist than as the historian of 
Greece. His lectures upon Grecian art are accompanied by a 
weekly visit of his class to the museum, where an hour or 
two is spent in examining plaster-casts and fragments of 
antique sculpture under the guidance of Curtius himself. 
Having enjoyed this very experience on many occasions in 
Berlin, the writer can attest the literal truth of the following 
description : 

^^ L^apres-midi, M. Curtius nous avait donn6 rendez-vous au 
Musee des antiques ou il fait chaque semaine une le9on sur 
Tarcheologie grecque et romaine. A son arrivee les etudi- 
ants qui I'attendaient en flanant a travers les collections, le 
saluerent selencieusement, puis remirent leur chapeau. M. 
Curtius resta convert aussi et commen9a sur-le-champ sa prom- 
enade de demonstrations archeologiques. Arme d'un coupe- 
papier en ivoire, il allait cFun objet a I'autre, expliquant, 
indiquant les moindres particularites avec Fextremite de son 
coupe-papier, tantot se haussant sur la pointe des pieds, tantot 
s'agenouillant pour mieux detailler ses explications. A un 
moment meme il se coucha par terre devant un tripled grec. 
Appuye sur le coude gauche et brandissant de la main droite 
son fiddle coupe-papier, il s'extasia sur les formes elegantes et sur 
les ornements ravissants du petit chef-d'oeuvre. On comprend 
aisement combien des le9ons faites avec chaleur par un tel profes- 
seur, dans un musee de premier ordre, doivent etre utiles aux 
eleves. La leyon que j'ai entendue ne roulait que sur des points 
secondaires : trepieds, candelabres, vases en terre cuite, etc., et 
maWe cela il s'en dep-ao^eait une admiration communicative et 
une sorte de parfum antique. On m'a assure que lorsqu'il 
s'occupe de la statuaire, M. Curtius atteint souvent a Teloquence 
la plus majestueuse ; et je le crois sans peine.'' 

The same method of peripatetic lectures, as described by M. 
Fr^dericq, was also pursued when I was in Berlin, 1874-5, by 
Herman Grimm for the illustration of art-history. Once a 
week he would meet his class at the museum for tlie exami- 



76 New Methods of Study in History, 



«| 



nation of works illustrating early Christian plastic and pic- 
torial art, for example, that of the Catacombs; also works 
illustrating Byzantine and Germanic influences, and the rise 
of the various Italian, French, German, and Flemish schools 
of painting and sculpture. More was learned from Grimm^s 
critical commentary upon these works of art, whether orig- 
inals, photographs, or engravings, than would be possible from 
almost any course of lectures upon the philosophy of art or 
aesthetics, without concrete realities to teach the eye. The 
wealth of that great museum of Berlin — for student-purposes 
one of the finest in the world — is best appreciated when a man 
like Grimm or Curtius points out its hidden treasures. 

The same illustrative methods in ancient and modern art 
were also practiced by the late Professor Stark, the archaeol- 
ogist and art historian of Heidelberg. Although the museum 
of the latter university is small, when compared with that of 
Berlin, yet it serves to illustrate what any institution of 
moderate resources can accomplish for its students in the way 
of supplying original sources of art-history, at least in the 
shape of casts, photographs, and other fac simile reproductions 
of artistic objects. If Stark did not have original tripods, 
candelabras, and terra cottas, he had, nevertheless, images of 
almost every important object mentioned in his lectures. One 
of the exercises in Stark^s archseological seminary consisted in 
the explanation at sight, by individual members, of pictorial 
representations upon Greek vases, which were inexpensively 
reproduced in colored plates, so that every man could have 
before him a copy of the work under discussion. There is a 
great future for American student-research in the field of art- 
history, which Herman Grimm used to call die Bluthe der 
Gesckichte. The quick success in England of Dr. Charles 
AYaklstein, a pupil of Stark's at Heidelberg, sliows what 
possibilities there are beyond German borders for the science 
of art and archaeology. The popularity of Professor Norton's 
seminary and art-courses at Cambridge, Massachusetts, shows 
that interest in such matters is kindling upon this side of the 



New Methods of Study in History. 77 

Atlantic. The art collections beo:nn by Yale, Amherst and 
Smith, Yassar and Cornell, Michigan, and Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity indicate that the day of art seminaries is not far oif. 
Indeed, since this writing, there was instituted (March 1, 1884,) 
in Baltimore a so-called Art-Circle, consisting of about tAventy 
graduate students, under the direction of Dr. A. L. Frothing- 
ham, ^ a fellow of the University, who has lived many years 
in Rome and is a member of the Societa dei Cultori delP 
Archeologia cristiana. The Circle will meet every Saturday 
morning in the library of the Peabody Institute, and, under 
the guidance of Dr. Froth ingham, will spend an hour or 
two in the examination of plates, photographs, and other 
works illustrating the history of art. The subjects of study 
for this semester are : the catacomb frescoes ; the sarcophagi ; 
mosaics ; ivory sculpture ; metal sculpture ; romanesque archi- 
tecture; gothic architecture; sculptm^e in France (gothic 
period) ; renaissance sculpture in Italy ; schools of painting in 
Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. An art-club, 
with eight members, has also been instituted among the 
undergradutes for the systematic reading of art-history. 

Seminary Libraeies. 

One of the most interesting and important features of the 
German historical, political, and archaeological seminaries is 



^ Dr. Frothingham is the author of the following monographs : L'Omelia 
di Giacomo di Sartig sul Battesimo di Constantino Imperatore (Eeale 
Accademia dei Lincei, 1881-2) ; II Tesoro della Basilica di S. Pietro in 
Vaticano dal XIII al XV Secolo (Eoma, 1883) ; Une Mosaique Constan- 
tinienne inconnue a Saint-Pierre de Borne (Bevue Archeologique, Paris, 
1883) ; Les Mosaiques de Grottaferrata (Gazette Archeologique, for Decem- 
ber, 1883-January, 1884) ; Letter to the Society for Biblical Archeology on 
a Hebrew inscription on a mosaic of the Y cent, at Bavenna. 

Dr. Frothingham and Dr. Alfred Emerson (fellow of Greek and classical 
archaeologist) have been the most active spirits in lately founding an Archae- 
ological Society in Baltimore, which will enjoy the co-operation of distin- 
guished archaeologists in the old world. 



78 New Methods of Study in History,. 

the special library, distinct from the main university collec- 
tions. We have already noticed the existence of such libraries 
at Pleidelberg and Bonn ; and it may be said in general that 
they are now springing up in all the universities of Ger- 
many. So important an auxiliary have these seminary-libra- 
ries become that in some universities, where the seminaries 
have been recognized by the state, a special appropriation is 
granted by the government for library purposes. The gov- 
ernment of Saxony granted Professor Koorden of Leipzig 
6,500 marks for the foundation of his seminary-library and 
an annual subsidy of 1,200 marks. This revenue for the 
2)urchase of books is considerably increased by a charge of ten 
marks per semester, paid by every student who has access to 
the seminary-library. The privileges of this working-library 
are regarded as analogous to the privileges of using laboratory 
apparatus or attending a clinique. 

In addition to a special library, German seminaries are now 
procuring special rooms, not only for regular meetings, but 
for daily work. The historical seminary at Leipzig, embrac- 
ing four sections like that at Bonn, has had, since 1880, five 
rooms at its disposal ; one consultation-room or Sprechzimmer 
for the professors, one room for maps and atlases, and three 
large rooms where the students work, with their special author- 
ities around them. Every student has for himself a table con- 
taining a drawer of which he keeps the key. The rooms are 
inaccessible to all except members of the seminary, who are 
intrusted with, pass-keys and can enter the library at any 
time from nine o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock at 
night. The rooms are warmed and lighted at university 
expense. Each student has a gas-jet above his own table and 
is absolutely independent of all his neighbors. Individuality 
is a marked feature of student-life and student- work in Ger- 
many. Men never room together; they rarely visit one 
another's apartments ; and they almost always prefer to work 
alone. Society and relaxation they know iiow and Avhere to 
find when they are at leisure. By general consent German 



New Ifethods of Study in History. 79 

students attend to their own aiFairs without let or hindrance. 
This belongs to academic freedom. It belongs to the seminary 
and it belono-s to the individual student. 

^I. Seignobos, in his excellent article on I'enseignement de 
I'histou'e en Allemagne/ says "tout seminaire historique d^Etat 
possede sa bibliotheque propre et sa salle de travail reservees 
a I'usage de ses membres. La, au contraire, tons les livres 
sans exception, restent a demeure, afin que I'etudiant soit tou- 
jours sur de les trouver.^' M. Seignobos gives a list of some 
of the chief works that are to be found in the historical semi- 
nary library at Leipzig. He noted Pertz, Monumenta Ger- 
maniae; Jaife, Regesta Pontificum; Jaffe, Bibliotheca rerum 
Germanicarum ; Bohmer, Pegesta imperatorum; B5hmer, 
Pontes rerum Germanicarum ; ]\Iuratori, Script ores ; Bouquet, 
Historiens des Gaules; AYattenbach and Lorenz, Quellen- 
geschichte; Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte; Archiv 
der gesellschaft fiir deutsche geschichte; Historische Zeit- 
schrift; ^Valter, Corpus juris Germanici; Zopfl, Rechts- 
geschichte ; AYaitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte ; Gengler, 
Codex jmis municipalis; Annales ecclesiastici; Migne,. Y'ies 
des Papes; Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiser zeit; 
Giesebrecht, Jahrbllcher des deutschen Peiches; Scriptores 
rerum prussicarum ; Huillard-Breholles, Frederic II ; Hefele, 
Conciliengeschichte ; Gregorovius, Geschichte det Stadt Rom ; 
Collection Byzantine ; Sickel, Monumenta graphica ; Potthast, 
Bibliotheca medii sevi. 



The Statistical Semixary ix Beelix.^ 

This government institution, while dealing with Prussian 
statistics, is also a regular seminary for the training of univer- 
sity graduates who have passed the examinations requii'ed for 



^ Eeme international de I'enseignement, June 15, 1881. " Bibliotlieques." 
^Authorities: Dr. Engel, Das Statistisclie Seminar des Konigl, Preus- 
sisclien Statisclien Bureaus in Berlin, 186-1. Programmes of courses. 



80 New Ilethods of Study in History. 

entrance to the higher branches of the civil service. The 
seminary, which was first opened in November, 1862, was 
under the direction of Dr. Edward Engel, chief of the Bureau 
of Statistics, aided by various university professors. The 
idea was that the government offices of the statistical bureau 
should become laboratories of political science. Not only are 
the flicilities of the department utilized for training purposes, 
but systematic courses of lectures are given to the statistical 
seminary by university professors co-operating with the chief 
and his assistants. Subjects like the following are treated : 
the theory and technique of statistics; agrarian questions; 
conditions and changes of population; political economy in its 
various branches ; insurance ; social questions ; administration ; 
prison discipline and prison reform in various countries ; sani- 
tary questions, physical geography, etc. 

The amount of original work produced by the bureau and 
seminary of statistics is very great. One has only to examine 
the Verzeichniss der periodischen und anderen Schriften, ^ 
which are published by these government offices, in order to 
appreciate the scientific value of the scholar in politics. These 
publications are of international significance, by reasons of the 
lessons which they teach. Whoever wishes to study, from a 
comparative point of view, the subject of national or munic- 
ipal finance; the relations of church and school; sanitation; 
insurance ; trade and commerce ; industries ; population ; land 
and climate; cities; development of the science of statistics; 
statistical congresses; markets; fairs; genealogies of royal 
families; tables of mortality; education; administration, etc., 
will be richly rewarded by consulting the published works of 
the Prussian Statistical Bureau, which can be obtained at cata- 
logue prices. 

' For this catalogue, one should address the Verlag des Koniglichen Statis- 
tischen Bureaus, Berlin, S. W., Lindenstrasse, 28. 



New Methods of Study in History, 81 

LiBRABY OF THE STATISTICAL SEMINARY. 

Among the publications of the Prussian Statistical Bureau 
is the catalogue of its library in two royal octavo volumes. 
In the iirst^ the authors and titles are arranged according to 
the sciences which they represent. In the second, the contents 
are grouped by States. Probably there is in existence no 
other such complete guide to political science in its historical, 
theoretical, and practical aspects. 

This library, now numbering over 70,000 volumes, has been 
used by Johns Hopkins University men, two of whom have 
belonged to Dr. EngePs Seminar, and they would fully endorse 
the published statement by Dr. Engel, in his account of the 
Statistical Seminary, made as long ago as 1864. He says: 
"If we may believe the admissions of many specialists, there 
exists far and wide no library so rich, no collection of period- 
icals so select, no map collection so excellent, as those in the 
royal bureau of statistics. All new contributions to this branch 
of literature, whether in Germany, France, England, Belgium, 
Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Pussia, Italy, Spain, 
Portugal, I^orth and South America, are brought to the eyes 
of members of this seminary. A series of more than seventy 
special magazines of political economy, statistics, and the allied 
branches of industry, agriculture, commerce and trade, public 
works, finance, credit, insurance, administration (municipal and 
national), social self help, — all this is not only accessible for 
seminary-use, but members are actually required to familiarize 
themselves with the contents of these magazines inasmuch as 
one of the practical exercises of the seminary consists in the 
preparation of a continuous report or written abstract of these 
journals.'' 

Historical Semii^aries in Belgium.^ 

The first real university-seminary in Belgium w^as instituted 
by Professor Kurth, at Liege, in the year 1874-5. In 1874 

^ The authority upon this subject is M. Paul Fredericq, Professor of 
modern history in the University of Li^ge, author of the admirable papers 
11 



82 New Methods of Study in History. 

M. Kurth had made a tour of observation in Germany, and, 
in 1876, published his impressions of the seminaries of Bonn, 
Leipzig, and Berlin in the Revue de Vinstruction publiqiie en 
Belgique (1876, A^ol. xix.) under the title, De Venseigne- 
ment de Vhistolre en Allemagne, quoted by Paul Fredericq in 
his admirable account of the higher education in history as 
now pursued in Belgium. The seminary-work organized by 
Professor Kurth was more especially in the domain of medi- 
aeval history. The Avork w^as divided into two sections. The 
first was a preparatory course upon historical methods and the 
principles of historical criticism, w^th exercises in the use of 
the original sources for a chosen period of history, Avhich was 
to be studied in detail the second year. The second section 
was this more advanced course wherein special questions Avere 
considered and theses produced. Among the original sources 
thus presented were those of Lorraine, of the Diocese of 
Liege, of the times of Charles the Great, and of the early 
Teutons. Among the special studies already published by 
members of this flourishing seminary are monographs upon 
Saint Gregory of Tours and classical studies in the sixth 
century; origin of the city of Lieg^; Norman invasions 
of the Diocese of Liege. It will be observed that most of 
these topics relate to the historical environment of the univer- 
sity where this scholarly work was produced. 

Professor Paul Fredericq has been the professorial colleague 
of M. Kurth and M. fimile de Laveleye at the university of 
Liege since 1880. The subject chosen by M. Fredericq for 
the first year's work in a class of fourteen students was the 
Inquisition in the^ Netherlands. The seminary studied the 
ideas and legislation of the sixteenth century upon questions 



on tlie liifjjher education in history, as tanglit in Germany and Paris, else- 
where cited. His article, De I' enseignement superieur de Vhistoire en Belgique, 
may be found in the introduction to the first published collection of original 
studies by his own seminary at Liege. Travaux du cours pratique d'histoire 
rationale, [(xand et La Haye, 1883.] 



New Methods of Study in History. 83 

of heresy. Papal bulls and royal edicts, public documents 
and local archives, the pamphlets of the period, original 
memoirs, contemporary chronicles, — such were the sources of 
information sought by Professor Fredericq and his diligent 
pupils. The second year they studied materials relating to 
Margaret of Parma, regent of the jN^ether lands. The mention 
of her original correspondence, edited by Gachard, will illus- 
trate the original character of the authorities employed. 

One of the results of this kind of seminary-work is an 
elaborate monograph upon Margaret of Parma by one of 
Professor Fredericq's pupils, Guillaume Crutzen, noAV pro- 
fessor of history in the royal athenaeum of Chimay. Other 
results of this seminary course in modern history are a 
monograph on Les edits des Princes-Eveques de Liege en 
matiere d'heresie au XVI* siecle, by Henri Lonchay, now 
professor of history in the athenaeum of Ghent ; also a mono- 
graph on L'enseignement public des Calvinistes a Gund (1578- 
1584) by Professor Fredericq himself. These three studies by 
members of the university of Liege, together with Professor 
Fredericq's introductory article, Lliistoire aux universites Beiges, 
have lately (1883) been published in a volume of about two 
hundred pages, entitled, " Universite de Liege. Travaux du 
cours pratique d'histoire nationale.^' 

Here are the beginnings in Belgium of the same system of 
seminary-publication as that represented in Germany by the 
Historische Studien, published by an association of university 
professors, and the Giessener Studien auf dem Gebiet der 
Geschichte,^ edited by Wilhelm Oncken. Here are sugges- 
tions for similar undertakings in America. 

It is interesting to an American student to find a Belgian 
seminary at Liege traversing anew, and in its own way, the 



^ Similar publications of student-theses are the Hallescke Abhandlungen 
zur neueren Geschichte herausgegeben von G. Droysen (son of the Berlin 
professor bearing the same name) and Die historischen Uebungen zu Gottingen, 
once edited by George "VYaitz. 



84 New Metliods of Study in History. . 

history of the Netherlands, where our own countryman, 
^Motley, was such a bold and successful pioneer. The seminary 
of Liege is now studying the correspondence of Philip II., 
of William the Silent (both edited by Gachard,) and van 
Prinsterer's collection of the archives of the house of Orange- 
Xassau, etc., with a view to fresh studies in this old but 
attractive field. 

The Historical Seminary in Paris. 

Perhaps the best authority upon this subject is Professor 
Fred6ricq^s recent article on L' enseigncment superieur de 
Vhistoire cl Paris, printed in the Revue International de Ven- 
seignement, July 15, 1883. One of the most interesting facts 
of a general nature noted by IM. Fredericq was the great 
number and variety of historical courses offered in the higher 
institutions of Paris. In the faculty of belles-lettres at the 
Sorbonne, at the College de France, in the Ecole des chartes, 
in the £cole normale, the ficole pratique des hautes etudes and 
the ficole libre des sciences politiques there were in all fifty 
historical courses. In the university of Berlin there were, 
at the time of comparison, only twenty -six courses ; at Leipzig, 
twenty-one; at Bonn, fourteen. 

M. Fredericq describes in minute detail the historical 
methods in vogue at the various learned institutions of Paris. 
The entire article deserves reproduction in some English 
journal of education. It is hoped that M. Fredericq's studies 
on the higher education in history as pursued in Germany, 
France, and Belgium may all appear in English translation at 
no distant day. In this brief review, attention is called simply 
to the iScole pratique des hautes etudes, and to the seminary 
work of M. Gabriel Monod. The Ecole pratique was founded 
in the year 1868, while M. Victor Duruy was in the ministry 
of public instruction. His idea was to institute new methods 
of practical instruction in mathematics, physics, chemistry, 
natural history, physiology, philology, and the historical 



New Ifethods of Study in History. 85 

sciences. The old method of instruction, especially in belles- 
lettres, had been of the lyceum-order — popular, entertaining, 
oratorical lectures for miscellaneous audiences. M. Duruy 
wished to substitute regular students for passing auditors, to 
create libraries and laboratories instead of supporting mere 
halls of learning. There was much discussion upon the 
subject of educational reform in France and the resultant 
literature ^ is very extensive. Some of it would, doubtless, be 
highly suggestive to college reformers in America. 

M. Gabriel Monod was appointed to give practical instruc- 
tion in history. He was a young Frenchman, who had studied 
at German universities, at Berlin under Koepke, and at Goet- 
tingen under Waitz. M. Monod's practical work was begun 
in his own private apartment at Paris. After a time, the 
director of the Ecole pratique, M. Renier, was able to obtain 
for this new school of history two little chambers in the 
fourth story of the right wing of the Sorbonne. These little 
rooms (chamhrettes basses, presque des mansards) belonged to 
the library of the Sorbonne. They are now furnished with 
books from floor to ceiling. They have become genuine labo- 
ratories of historical science. M. Fredericq describes how 
master and pupils are constantly rummaging through the 
alcoves of their library. Tables, supplied with writing mate- 
rials, extend along the line of the book-cases. There is an 
atmosphere of quiet, serious work pervading the entire apart- 
ment. M. Fredericq says the very narrowness of the quarters 

^ Statistique de I'enseignement superieur, 1865 et seq. 

L' Administration de 1' instruction publique, Ministers de M. Duruy, Paris, 
1870, pp. 932 ; Circulaires et instructions officielles relatives a I'instruction 
publique, Ministere de M. Duruy, pp. 716. 

Karl Hillebrand, de le reforme de I'enseignement superieur, Paris, 1868. 

Greard, I'enseignement superieur a Paris, 1881. 

Melanges, publics par la section historique de I'Ecole pratique, 1878. 

Monod, De le possibilite d'une reforme de I'enseignement superieur, 
Paris, 1876. 

Lavisse, L'Enseignement bistorique en Sorbonne et 1' education national, 
Eevue des Deux Mondes, Feb. 15, 1882. 



86 New Methods of Study in History, ■ 

has ^' quelque chose d'intime qui donne un charme tout 
particulier aux legons. C^est un petit local adorable qui doit 
laisser un profond souvenir aux Aleves. II me semble que si 
I'ficole pratique le quittait un jour pour aller occuper des 
installations plus vastes et plus monumentales, elle y perdrait 
quelque chose de tres precieux : son physionomie, son cachet.'' 

Passing from the environment of M. Monod's seminary to 
the seminary itself, our Belp:ian observer finds it consisting^ of 
about a dozen men, devoted to original research in the field of 
early French history. He heard one member of the seminary 
giving the results of his own investigations into the family 
history of King Robert, son of Hugh Capet. The student 
had a great package of notes, made copious citations from old 
chronicles, and corrected the mistakes of his predecessors. 
M. Fr6dericq says a member of the old school would have 
laughed at such scrupulous attention to the petty details of 
such a subject, but, as for himself, he was delighted to find, in 
the very citadel of ancient university traditions, in the old 
Sorbonne. such a conscientious zeal for painstaking, scientific 
work. During the lecture given by his pupil, ^^M. Monod 
s'effagait autant que possible pour ne pa^ entraver Tinitiative 
de I'eleve, ecoutant avec une attention extreme, la tete pench6e, 
deux doigts de la main gauche presses sur la bouche, ou rajus- 
tant son pince-nez avant de phicer 9a et la une breve rectifi- 
cation. A la fin de la le§on il prit chaque fois la parole pour 
resumer le debat en mettant les points sur les i et indiquer 
nettement les resultats solides et les questions rcstees obscures. 
Ici encore j'ai admire la sagacite et le tact de cet excellent 
professeur." 

The £cole pratique and the seminary of. M. Monod have 
had a powerful influence upon the educational reconstruction 
of the higlier institutions of Paris. One can no longer find 
such purely oratorical courses as flourislied in former days for 
po])ular audiences. Professors in the Sorbonne now address 
their regular ])upils, for whom are reserved the foremost 
phices in those ancient lecture-halls. The £cole pratique has 



New Ifethods of Study in History. 87 

grown from small beginnings into a vast seminary of the arts 
and sciences with twenty-five professors and fifty courses of 
lectures. Since 1869 the school has had its own organ for 
collective publication, the so-called Bihliotheque de VEcole 
'pratique des hautes etudes, wherein have appeared some of the 
best special works in history by Messieurs Monod, Fagniez, 
Giry, and many others. In 1875, M. Monod established the 
Revue Historique and lately he has been one of the most active 
spirits in founding at Paris the SociSt^ Historique or the 
so-called Cercle Saint Simon, wherein are associated, upon a 
club basis (somewhat like the Athenaeum in London), many 
of the brightest men in Paris. The Cercle includes also cer- 
tain non-resident members, gentlemen living in other parts of 
France or Europe, who are assured of good fellowship when 
they visit the club-rooms of the Soci^t6 Historique, of Avhich 
M. Monod is now the President. 

Seminaries and Lectures at Harvard College. 

One of the earliest and most successful applications of the 
seminary-method in this country was in the department of 
history at Llarvard college, in the advanced classes of Professor 
Henry Adams. ^ It was at a time when the writings of Sir 
Henry Maine were first making their way into the minds of 
American students. Through Sir Henry Maine and Professor 
William Stubbs the current of German influence, from Von 
Maurer and George Waitz, came to England and America. 
It is gratifying to the American spirit of independence that 
this German current found so quickly in our country new 
channels of inquiry. Professor Adams began, indeed, his 
seminary-work with a critical review of the writings of Sir 
Henry Maine. The members of his class took each a chapter 

^ It is an interesting fact that the first university lectures after the German 
model that were ever given in this country were those delivered at Harvard 
college, 1806-8, upon rhetoric and oratory, by John Quincy Adams, the 
grandfather of Henry Adams, who is the son of Charles Francis Adams. 



88 New Ilethods of Study in History. 

and studied it in the light of other evidence. Each man 
reported to the class upon the results of his critical study and 
was sharply opposed at every doubtful point by the professor, 
whose real views upon the subject were never avowed until 
the close of the exercise. So profitable was this kind of train- 
ing and disputation that one young man has since developed 
into a radical opponent of the views of Sir Henry Maine and 
of Von Maurer himself, as regards the early history of insti- 
tutions, particularly of village communities and of land-hold- 
ing among the ancient Germans. ^ 

Another independent result of the Harvard Seminary was 
a series of published essays upon Anglo-Saxon law. The 
professor himself investigated the subject of Anglo-Saxon law- 
courts. Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge inquired into Anglo-Saxon 
land-law. Mr. Ernest Young studied Anglo-Saxon family- 
law ; and Mr. J. Laurence Laughlin, Anglo-Saxon legal pro- 
cedure. These seminary-studies Avere published together in a 
volume entitled Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law (Boston : Little, 
Brown & Co., 1876). They were afterwards republished in 
England (London : Macmillan & Co.) and have everywhere 
met Avith cordial recognition by critica} scholars in the old 
world as well as in the new. This published Avork has given 
a decided impulse to historical studies and joint publications 
elseAA'here. 

It is a suggestive commentary upon the practical bearing of 
this seminary-Avork at Harvard College that all three of the 



1 Deninan W. Ross, Ph. D. (Harvard) : The Early History of Land- 
Hokling among the Germans, (Boston : Soule and Bugbee, 1883) ; Studies 
in the Early History of Institutions, I-IV, Cambridge, Mass., Charles W. 
Sever, 1880-1. I-III. Theory of Village Communities; IV. Theory of 
I*rimitive Democracy in the Alps ; The Theory of Primitive Communism. 

The book on Land-Holding and the various studies support the ideas that 
land community Avas not a primitive institution ; that, on the contrary, indi- 
vidual land-holding is the historic basis of landed property, even in its com- 
munal forms ; and that the Teutonic village communities were always com- 
nuniities of serfs or tenants holding tlieir lands from some lord. The book 
lias been favorably reviewed in The Spectator, January 5, 1884 ; unfavorably 
in the Saturday Review, January 19, 1884. 



New Methods of Study in History. 89 

graduate students who were engaged with Professor Henry 
Adams in the preparation of this book on Anglo-Saxon Law 
were afterwards engaged as instructors in that institution and 
continued there the methods they had learned so well. Dr. 
Lodge instituted co-operative student-lectures in American 
colonial history^ and he himself has since published an excel- 
lent Short History of the English Colonies in America, the 
Life of George Cabot, a Life of Alexander Hamilton, and 
a Life of Daniel Webster (the last two in the series called 
American Statesmen). But for Dr. Lodge the lessons of past 
history have now been transformed into present politics in 
Massachusetts. His former associates, hoAvever, continue in 
their academic career. Both are now assistant professors 
in Harvard University. During the past year. Dr. Young 
has conducted original courses in Roman Law (for one grad- 
uate, ten seniors, eleven juniors, and two sophomores), and in 
the Constitutional and Legal History of England (for two 
graduates, thirteen seniors, and fourteen juniors). This course 
best represents the continuity of work in institutional history 
originally begun by Professor Henry Adams. Dr. Laughlin 
has pursued, with his class, independent studies of the economic 
effects of land tenures in England, Ireland, and France (the 
class consisting of one graduate and six seniors). From 
classes much larger in size he has also required theses upon 
practical economic questions pertaining to this country, e. g. 
Bimetallism, Reciprocity with Canada, National Bank Issues, 
American competition, etc. Dr. Taussig,^ who has been asso- 
ciated with Professor Laughlin in teaching political economy, 
produced original studies on the history of tariff legislation 
in the United States, which gained him the Topham prize and 
the degree of Ph. D. in 1883. His thesis Avas entitled 



^ Dr. Taussig's studies were brought out in a special course of lectures 
before the students of the college and were afterwards published by Moses 
King, of Cambridge, Mass. A second edition Avill appear from the press of 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 

12 



90 New 3Iethods of Study in History. . 

" Protection to Young Industries as applied in the United 
States." 

The success attending the new courses in political economy 
at Harvard College last year was most remarkable. The 
attendance in one full course (three hours a week) was as high 
as 155 (including 1 graduate, 22 seniors, 113 juniors, 13 
sophomores, 3 specials, 2 law students, and 1 scientific). Any 
observer of student opinion as revealed last year in Harvard 
College papers could see that political economy was in very 
great demand. This was doubtless in great measure the result 
of public opinion which now favors economic studies; but 
it was also the fruit of the life-work of Professor Dunbar 
and of those other Professors, Torrey, Gurney, and Adams, 
who trained these younger men in historical and political 
science. Professor Dunbar, the head of the department of 
political economy, has now returned from Europe with newly 
developed and highly suggestive courses: (1) A comparison of 
the financial systems of France, England, Germany, and the 
United States ; (2) the economic history of Europe and America 
since the seven years' war. 

Another line of seminary work at Harvard is more espec- 
ially on church and state in the Middle Ages. Dr. Emerton, 
now professor of ecclesiastical history, was trained in methods 
of special work not only at Harvard College, but also at 
Berlin university, in the seminary of Droysen. Dr. Emerton 
has conducted various seminarv courses at Harvard for arrad- 
uate and undergraduate students, but his work has dealt 
chiefly with topics of European history, from the time of 
Charles the Great to the end of the thirteenth century. His 
students have investigated the relations between the Papacy 
and the German Empire, the origin of mediaeval institutions, 
the rise of French Communes, etc. He introduced the semi- 
nary-method into the so-called "Harvard Annex," a Cam- 
bridge institution for the promotion of the higher education of 
women. One of his pupils, a graduate of Smith College, 
Northampton, prej^ared, under his direction, an elaborate 



New Methods of Study in History. 91 

thesis in German constitutional history, on the origin of the 
electoral college, for which the degree of doctor of philosophy 
was afterwards given her at Northampton in 1881. During 
the past year Professor Emerton has conducted a seminary for 
the study and use of historical sources relating to church and 
state in the eleventh century. The seminary included one 
graduate and four seniors. Each member prepared five theses, 
embodying original investigations. 

Dr. Emerton has lately contributed to the Pedagogical 
Library a chapter on ^' The Historical Seminary in American 
Teaching,^^ which is an able exposition of the seminary idea. 
I shall quote from it at considerable length : " History has 
been taught very badly in America, or rather, to be honest, it 
has rarely been taught at all. In the great development of 
educational methods since the war, it has been one of the 
departments most slowly and imperfectly recognized as w^orthy 
a place of its own. Even now independent chairs of history 
exist in but very few American colleges, and the proportion of 
time given to its study is absurdly inadequate. ISFo serious 
knowledge of history is required for entrance into our colleges, 
so that a considerable part of w^hatever teaching th^j may 
ofPer must needs be elementary. Our subject stands, therefore, 
in need of fair representation. It must be placed before the 
country in such a light as shall clearly show it to be worth all 
the care that can be bestowed upon it. It must be made clear 
that the claim of history to rank among the sciences is founded 
in fact — the fact that it has a scientific method. To illustrate 
and enforce this truth is the mission of the historical ^^ Sem- 
inar " in America. 

"Let us consider some of the condition^ of its success. 1. 
It must consist of picked men. This is not a method adapted 
to every student. The recitation in elementary, and the lecture 
in advanced, teaching must still remain as the chief means of 
reaching great masses of students. The members of the prac- 
tice-course, as I prefer to call it, must be men of exceptionally 
good preparation for this work, usually equipped w^ith some 



92 New Methods of Study in History. 

considerable general knowledge of history, but especially 
strong in foreign languages, in order that all possible tools 
may be available for their use. 2. Its numbers must be small, 
no more, at least, than can be comfortably seated about a 
table, so that the relation of pupil and teacher shall be as 
informal as may be. The students must be in every way 
encouraged to feel that tliey are alone responsible for the 
success of their work, that they are investigators whose results 
may find a place in the world's record of learning, as well as 
those of any other men. The teacher must here cease to lay 
down for their acceptance the products of his own labor; he 
must become their guide only, enforcing always the lesson 
that their work alone can bring them substantial rewards. 
Thus, teacher and students become a working body together, 
with a definite purpose, with wxll understood ways of work, 
and with a common enthusiasm. 3. The subject selected for 
treatment must be one which lends itself readily to the pur- 
pose of the practice-course, one in which, above all else, the 
material is accessible in a convenient shape for handling. . . . 
"Quite apart from all considerations of gain to the student 
is the relief and advantage which a class of this kind brings 
to the instructor. This is manly work. He feels himself 
here no longer the pedagogue laying down the law, but an 
overseer guiding the action of intelligent workers. It is not 
for him to inform them, but for them to inform him, while it 
is his part to see to it that they apply their poAvers in such a 
way as to insure the value of their results. There is a ten- 
dency among some educators to depreciate the value of orig- 
inal work by young scholars. They say it must needs be 
crude, and therefore useless. A wiser view is, that only 
through these first attempts at original effort can a man hope 
to make the most effective use of his powers when they shall 
have become mature. The evil witli us is not that our boys 
begin to create too early, but too late. If every student, from 
the first moment that he learns anything, were compelled to 
reproduce it in proper shape, he would find himself in college 



New Ilethods of Study in History. 93 

vastly better equipped for the actual grappling with new truth 
than he now is. 

^^ The principal of study I am here advocating is no longer 
on trial as an experiment in America. It has come to stay. 
I am not going too far^ I think, in calling it the foundation 
of the Johns Hopkins University system, and the main source 
of the wonderful creative vigor already developed by that 
young institution. Other colleges are following. In all, per- 
haps, a half dozen can show some form of this practical 
instruction in moral science. And the development must go 
on. Libraries must become the laboratories in these sciences 
in which the head plays the most important part. The library 
must cease to be the store-house for books and become the 
working-place where the historian, the philosopher, and the 
philologist of the future are to get their most effectual train- 
ing.^' 

Seminary WoEK in Haeyaed College Libeaey. 

The conversion of a library into a laboratory of science is 
w^ell illustrated at Harvard College, where, through admir- 
able management by the librarian. Professor Justin Winsor, 
the custom has long prevailed of bringing the materials 
needed for a specific line of class-work to the notice of 
students in alcove-reservations, "to which the students have 
unrestricted access." ^ Books are treated as specimens, to be 
examined, tested, analyzed by the class of students for whose 



^ See Justin Winsor's report on the Library of Harvard College. Annual 
Reports, 1882-3. It appears from Mr. Winsor's report that the practice of 
giving students temporary admission to the shelves is a growing tendency at 
Harvard College. The number of times that cards of admission are actually 
used would seem to be a fair test of the extent to which the library was 
becoming a work-shop. In 1879-80, the number was 340 ; in 1880-1, it was 
870; in 1881-2, it was 2,542; last year it was 3,340, — a total increase in 
four years of 3,000 cases of original research. It appears that during the 
l^ast year 167 students have used admission cards — 46 were students of 
history, 5 of Political Economy. 



94 New Methods of Study in History, 

benefit they are set forth. Usually the instructor's name is 
placed upon that collection of authorities Avhich he has selected 
for the use of his class. Reserved books can be taken out 
over night. AVhile conflicts of interest sometimes occur 
between instructors or students who need the same books, yet 
these matters are generally settled by principles of comity or 
by the greatest good of the greatest number. The point is to 
secure the greatest efficiency of the college library as a labora- 
tory for student-work. Professors Greenough, Emerton, and 
others have gained this point by having seminary classes meet 
in one of the small rooms of the librarv building^ — an idea 
which was afterwards carried out by the Baltimore historical 
seminary, which met for a time in one of the small lecture- 
halls of the Peabody Institute. 

Seminary Work in the University of Michigan. 

The development and present character of seminary work 
in history at the University of Michigan are described as 
follows by Professor Charles Kendall Adams^ Dean of the 
School of Political Science: 

" I hardly suppose there are any peculiarities in our methods 
of instruction before coming to the seminary work that I need 
to describe. In the paper I contributed to Dr. HalPs volume ^ 
I gave some hints that will enable you to judge as to what we 
do. But a few words in regard to the seminary work may 
not be unwelcome. 

"This, of course, had to be evolved out of the old colle- 
giate curriculum. When I took hold of my work here, in 
full charge of the Department of History, in 1868, it occurred 
to me that sometliing might be done to awaken further interest 
by introducing the German seminary methods. I had observed 
the work done in the seminaries in Berlin, Leipzig, and Bonn, 



^ PedagojTical Library, edited by G. Stanley Hall, Vol. I., Methods of 
Teaching History, pp. 171-181. 



Neio Methods of Study in History. 95 

and was convinced that better work could be done than, up to 
that time, had here been attempted. Accordingly, the next year, 
in 1869, I got together a group of seniors, especially inter- 
ested in historical studies, to see what I could do with them. 
The students were, of course, ill-prepared for anything that 
could properly be called original work ; and the resources of 
the library were quite inadequate. But we did the best w^e 
could, and the results on the whole were so satisfactory that I 
was encouraged to develop the system as time and opportunity 
seemed to suggest. It was not for some years after the time 
of which I am speaking, that the course of study was made 
elective after the first year. As soon as the elective system 
came to be general, I was able to provide such preliminary 
work as I had strength to carry on. In course of time an 
Assistant Professor was furnished, and we have, in conse- 
quence, been able to add several courses not before given. 

"Up to within the last year the resources of our library 
have not been such as to encourage us in going into an inves- 
tigation of difficult and obscure questions. ]S"or, indeed, has 
that class of questions been the one I have supposed to be 
most useful to our students, x^early all of them are under- 
graduates, and a majority of them are to be lawyers. I have 
thought, therefore, that their minds required a different class of 
questions from such as would be most profitable, perhaps, to a 
group of specialists intending to make the teaching of history a 
profession. In the first semester I gave the students a set of 
questions on English history; in the second, on American. 
The questions were, in the main, those in the last pages of my 
"Manual." The class taking the work varied in size from 
twenty to fifty. Of late, I have made the conditions of 
admittance more stringent and the number does not often go 
above twenty-five. I have tried three different ways of con- 
ducting the exercise. In all cases the subjects for special 
investigation have been assigned at the beginning of the 
year. In about six weeks we have the first paper — usually 
from half an hour to an hour in length. Then I have some 



96 New 2Iethods of Study in History. . 

years had a critique on this paper, prepared bj one of the 
members of the class into whose hands it had been put a week 
before it was to be read. I shoukl have said that the class is 
always divided into groups of not more, in any case, than 
fifteen members, and usually not more than ten. After the 
critique, each member is called upon to present the results of the 
studies on the question before us for that day. In this way 
the two hours of the session are taken up. I, of course, make 
such observations, comments and criticisms as appear to be 
called for. In this way, every member of the class prepares 
a paper and reads a critique every semester, and is expected to 
present the results of some study in addition on each of the 
other questions. 

^^Another way I have tried is to divide the questions into 
several parts and have each student devote a week to some 
particular phase of an individual question. This results in 
better work, but at the conclusion the knowledge of the 
students is more fragmentary and less satisfactory. Another 
method has been to have each student report at each meeting 
the result of his own studies on his own particular question. 
This I have found to be the most satisfactory, if the questions 
are properly chosen. In such a course, the meeting would not 
be devoted to a single question as is usual in Germany, but to 
as many as happened to be in course of investigation. 

" This latter is the course I pursued last year in my ^ Politi- 
cal Seminary.^ The class consists of a group of six, four of 
them candidates for higher degrees. Our studies were very 
largely of municipal institutions in different times and differ- 
ent countries, but not exclusively so. The results were very 
satisfactory indeed, so far as can be judged by the interest 
awakened in the students. I have been making efforts to get 
as large a collection as practicable of municipal documents, 
and I have put the students into these for the study of such 
of our own cities as have favored me with their reports. 

" The most conspicuous success last year was a paper on the 
^ History of the Appointing Power of the President.' It is 



New Methods of Study in History, 97 

well worthy of publication and I think would be regarded as 
a genuine contribution to current knowledge. It covers some 
three hundred pages of MS., and is very carefully sustained by 
notes and citations of authorities. Another paper of excel- 
lence was on ' History of the Land Grants for Higher Edu- 
cation in the Xorthwest.' The author of this paper, a candi- 
date for Ph. J)., is now in Columbus, O., looking at the State 
Records of that State. He has already visited Lansing, Mad- 
ison, and Chicago, and after ' doing ' Ohio is to go to Indian- 
apolis. His final thesis is to be on ^The Land Grants for 
Education in the Xorthwest,' — more properly in that portion 
of the Xorthwest which is made up of the old Northwestern 
Territory. He has undertaken to trace the management in 
each State of all the land grants for education. I think he is 
doing the work thoroughly. So far as he has gone, he tells 
me he has examined all the General Laws and Specific Acts 
in the States under investio^ation. I think he will not onlv 
bring together a large amount of new information, but will 
make very clear some mistakes that have been made. Another 
member devoted his time to a study of the financial history of 
Chicago ; another to a comparison of the governments of St. 
Louis, Chicago, Buffalo, and Boston. I have also been getting 
together the means for a similar study of cities of the old 
world. I hope to push investigations in the history of edu- 
cation in the Northwest. The management of elementary or 
common schools, the growth of the high school, legislative 
interference with colleges and universities are all subjects 
which might be profitably investigated.'' 

The Historical Seminary ix Baltimore. 

In 1876 the Johns Hopkins University was opened in Bal- 
timore for the promotion of science and of college education. 
There was no intention of establishing in this country a 
German university, or of slavishly following foreign methods. 
The institution was to be pre-eminently American, but it did 
13 



98 New Methods of Study in History. 

not hesitate to adapt the best results of European experience, 
to American educational wants. The system of fellowships, 
which secured at once a company of advanced students for 
scientific work, was, from the very outset, radically different 
from that of England, or from the German system of Privat- 
doccnten. It was a peculiarly American system for the encour- 
agement of original research. The historical seminary, which 
was instituted as soon as university-life in Baltimore began, 
was founded upon a purely American basis, and devoted itself 
strictly to American history. The director of this seminary, 
Dr. Austin Scott, was then associated with Mr. George Ban- 
croft in Washington in preparing materials for the history of 
the formative period of the American constitution, upon which 
Mr. Bancroft was then engaged. Dr. Scott, who spent most 
of his time in original research in the library of the state 
department and with Mr. Bancroft in his own study, came to 
Baltimore once a week to conduct a session of the historical 
seminary, which met Saturday mornings. 

The same course of constitutional studies, which Mr. Ban- 
croft and Dr. Scott had pursued together, was now reviewed 
by six or eight university students under Pr. Scott's instructive 
guidance. The seminary had the feeling that they had been 
Sidmitted to IMr. Bancroft's workshop and that, by the exami- 
nation of his materials and his methods, they Avere being 
taught the art of constructing history. The very manuscripts 
which Dr. Scott had prepared, while collecting and sifting 
facts for Mr. Bancroft, were shoAvn to the seminary. Questions 
still unsolved were submitted to Johns Hopkins students for 
their consideration in company with their instructor. Books 
from Mr. Bancroft's private library supplemented the resources 
of Baltimore. Original papers were prepared by various 
members of the seminary, and written words of encouragement 
for work like this, came from the historian liimself. The 
feeling was thus engendered that, in some slight ways, the 
seminary was contributing to the great volume of United 
States History. IJetween such creative methods of historical 



New Methods of Study in History. 99 

study and the old passive methods of reliance upon standard 
authorities and text-books, there was felt to be a vast difference. 
And yet the new methods were very simple. Instead of each 
man buying an expensive work of constitutional history, a set 
of the journals of the old congress, the Madison papers, 
Elliot's debates, the writings of Washington, Jefferson, 
Hamilton, and a few other sources of information contem- 
porary with the formation of the constitution, were brought 
together upon a long table in the library of the Maryland 
historical society, where seminary sessions Avere held, and 
where special facilities were afforded for original research. 
Around this common board gathered the seminary which was 
composed originally of six or eight men, four of them " fellows '' 
of the university. The director sat at the head of the board, 
and usually gave a short lecture, or informal ^^ talk," intro- 
ductory to the discussion of specific topics which had been 
assigned for research during the previous week. Reports were 
made; papers were read; and general interest was awakened 
in special questions touching the origin and growth of the 
American constitution. The relation of the states at the close 
of the revolutionary war, economic questions, commercial 
problems, the western lands, the influence of the army, the 
question of revenue, the efforts of statesmen, the origin and 
history of the great conventions, the constitutional platforms 
proposed, the course and results of debate, the adoption of the 
constitution by the various States, the administration of Wash- 
ington, the rise of parties, all of these questions and many 
more were studied in detail by members of the historical 
seminary. 

Dr. Scott's weekly seminary was continued, at convenient 
intervals, during a period of five years. The best results of 
this period of study were presented to the university by Dr. 
Scott in the form of ten public lectures, delivered in January, 
1882, upon the development of the American constitution, 
under the special topics of nationalism and local self-govern- 
ment ; the federative principle ; self-assertion of the national 



100 New llethods of Study in History. . 

idea; reaction; transition; power of the masses; economic 
questions; socialism; revolution. Various original papers 
were prepared in connection with this seminary, and a few 
have found their way into print. A monograph, by the 
editor of this series, upon ^^ Maryland's Influence in founding 
a National Commonwealth,'' with two minor papers upon 
" Washington's Land Speculations " and " Washington's Influ- 
ence in opening a Channel of Trade between the East and 
West," was published in 1877 by the Maryland Historical 
Society (Fund Publication, N^o. XI.) An article by W. T. 
Brantly, of the Baltimore Bar, upon '"' The Influence of Euro- 
pean Speculation in the Formation of the Federal Consti- 
tution," Avas published in the Southern Law Review (St. 
Louis) August and September, 1880. In 1881 INIr. Bancroft's 
great work was published in two large volumes, and seminary 
work in this attractive field was brought to a close. But 
attention was now being directed towards the field of Amer- 
ican local institutions, the earliest germs of our colonial, state, 
and national life. 

But before considering this ncAV phase of the historical sem- 
inary in Baltimore, it is fitting to say a ^ivord concerning the 
seminary of constitutional Law, instituted by Judge T. M. 
Cooley, during his lectureship in Baltimore, 1877-9, at the 
request of members of Dr. Scott's historical seminary. This 
other seminary was conducted for the special purpose of 
expounding the text of the constitution of the United States 
and of comparing its provisions with the unwritten constitu- 
tion of England. These exercises, which occurred once a 
week, consisted chiefly of comment by Judge Cooley, with 
questions and discussion by the class. Each member had a 
copy of Paschal's Annotated Constitution and of Baldwin's 
text, with references to constitutional decisions. The exercises 
were made especially profitable to students of history in con- 
sequence of the legal turn given to the discussions of the sem- 
inary by its lawyer-members and by Judge Cooley. Decisions 
of the supreme court, modifying or interpreting the text of 



Neio Ilethods of Study in History. 101 

the constitution, were frequently cited, and the conception of 
our constitutional law as an organic growi:h instead of a 
machine, was thereby strengthened and deepened. 

In the autumn of 1880, had already begun a new departure 
in historical instruction at the Johns Hopkins University in 
the introduction of American institutional history as a distinct 
branch of historical study. The idea was the outgrowth of a 
special interest in municipal history, first quickened in a sem- 
inary at Heidelberg, thence transplanted to Baltimore, where 
it was fostered by the reading of the wiitings of Sir Henry 
Maine, in connection with those of Carl Hegel, Maurer, JS^asse, 
AYaitz, Stubbs, and of the Harvard school of Anglo-Saxon 
law. The continuity of the Germanic village community in 
JSTew England had been originally suggested to Sir Henry 
Maine by an article in The Nation, communicated by Professor 
W. F. Allen, of the Universitv of Wisconsin. It was deter- 
mined as early as 1877, after consultation with Professor 
Henry Adams, then and now living in Washington, to apply 
this principle of continuity to the town institutions of New 
England. Spring sojourns for four terms, beginning in 1878, 
at Smith College, I^orthampton, Massachusetts, and summer 
vacations spent in old towns along the Kew England coast 
made it possible to attempt this study, the first fruit of which 
was presented in 1880 to a mixed class of graduate and under- 
graduate students at the Johns Hopkins University, in a course 
of lectures, one hour a week, for one semester, upon the 
History of Plymouth Plantations, a course based upon an 
original study of the colonial and towm records of Plymouth. 
The only work required of the class in this connection was an 
examination upon Sir Henry Maine's lectures on ^^A^illage 
Communities in the East and West.'' The next year, 1881, 
a similar course was given to advanced students only, upon 
^^ Salem Plantations," based upon vacation studies in Massa- 
chusetts. 

By this time, kindred researches in the colonial and local 
records of other states Avere in progress among college grad- 



102 New Methods of Study in History. . 

uates from various parts of the Union. A student from South 
Carolina was investigating the parish system of his native 
state. Maryland men were studying Maryland institutions. 
But, while advantage was thus taken of local environments, 
even of summer residence, these were not the only consider- 
ations which governed the allotment of territory. A Xew 
England man Avas encouraged to investigate the origin and 
development of the municipal government of Xew York City. 
Another graduate from the northeast section of the Union began 
to study the local government of IMichigan and the North- 
west, and . the results of his work were read at the general 
meeting of the American Social Science Association in 1882, 
and afterwards published in their proceedings for that year. The 
article Avas republished in the Johns Hopkins University 
Studies in Historical and Political Science, first series, number 5. 

It was a part of the ncAV seminary plan to have its studies 
published in the proceedings of learned societies, in historical 
magazines, and in other ways suited to the propaganda of 
American institutional history. Especially Avas it desired to 
obtain local recognition for local AAork. A paper on local 
government in Pennsyh'ania Avas read before the Pennsylvania 
historical society and published in the Pennsylvania magazine 
of history and biography. It AA'as also intended that these 
local publications should ultimately be brought together again 
in a regular uniA^ersity series. The American Antiquarian 
Society, the Ncaa- England Historic, Genealogical Society, the 
Essex Institute, the secretary of tlie American Social Science 
Association, and editors of magazines kindly co-operated in 
furthering this aim of the seminary ; and the trustees of the 
Johns Hopkins University, in the autumn of 1882, enabled 
the project to be carried out in the shape of a monthly period- 
ical dcA'^oted to " Studies in Historical and Political Science," 
the first A^olume of AA^hich is noAA' complete. 

The ncAV historical seminary of graduate students began its 
Saturday mid-day sessions in the autumn of 1881, in a small 
lecture-room of the Peabody Institute, Avliich contains a library 



Neio Methods of Study in History. 103 

most admirably equipped for special research and numbering 
about 80,000 volumes. Here, around a long table, half a 
dozen advanced students met together twice a week, once for a 
study of the sources of early European history with special refer- 
ence to Germanic peoples, and once for lectures and original 
papers on the local institutions of the United States. All the 
sources of information, used or mentioned by members of the 
seminary, were exhibited upon the long table, and were passed 
around for purposes of illustration. The advantage of seeing 
and handling the books mentioned in a lecture or bibliography, 
is very great, compared with the simple transcription of cata- 
logue-titles into a note-book, — a method prevailing in German 
lecture-courses. The Baltimore seminaries are laboratories 
where books are treated like mineralogical specimens, passed 
about from hand to hand, examined, and tested. 

In the spring semester of 1882, the institutional section of 
the historical seminary began to hold Friday evening sessions, 
of two hours each, for the convenience of certain young law- 
yers, graduates of the university, who desired to participate in 
the institutional work. ]\Ieantime the library resources of 
the Johns Hopkins for the furtherance of such study had 
been increasing. It was thought expedient to fit up a special 
library-room for the accommodation of the seminary, which 
had now increased to eighteen members. A seminary altar in 
the shape of another long table was accordingly erected, and 
book-shelves were built around the room, within easy reach. 
Here the peripatetic school of American history assembled anew 
and held weekly sessions until the close of the spring semester 
of 1883, continuing, however, its weekly meetings at the 
Peabody Institute for the study of the sources of English 
histor}'. The historical seminary early associated with itself 
the graduate students in political economy and certain profes- 
sors and advanced students of history and politics in other 
colleges. In this associate capacity the seminary is known as 
the Historical and Political Science Association. 

No better idea of the nature of the subjects discussed by it 
last year can be given than those reported in a number of the 



104 New Ilethods of Study in History. 

Johns Hopkins University Circular, August, 1883, among 
the proceedings of societies, from April 6 to May 30, 1883 : 
topical instruction in history, by Professor William F. Allen, 
of the University of Wisconsin; letters from a university- 
student in Germany, on German methods of writing and 
teaching history; the limits of co-operation, by E. E. L. 
Gould, felloAV of history ; historical remarks on Talbot county 
and the Eastern Shore of ]\Iaryland, by Dr. Samuel A. Har- 
rison, of Easton, Maryland ; customs of land tenure among 
the boys of McDonogh institute, Baltimore county, by John 
Johnson,. A. B., [a very remarkable paper, illustrating not 
only the advantage of studying local environments but socialism 
in miniature] : socialistic and co-operative features of Mor- 
monism, by the Rev. G. D. B. ^liller, of St. Mark's School, 
Salt Lake City ; Machiavelli, by Edgar Goodman, A. B. ; the 
influence of John Locke upon political philosophy, by B. J. 
Ramage, A. B. ; the office of public prosecutor, by F. J. Good- 
now, A. B., professor (elect) of administrative law in Columbia 
College; the income tax in the United States, by H. W. Cald- 
well, A. B., instructor (elect) of history in the University of 
Nebraska; Hugo Grotius, the founder of modern interna- 
tional law, by Arthur Yager, A. B., professor (elect) of histor- 
ical and political science, Georgetown College, Ky. ; review 
notices of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Grotius, by 
Dr. J. F. Jameson, associate in history, J. H. U. ; America as 
a field for church history, by Dr. Philip Schaif, of the Union 
Theological Seminary ; taxation in Maryland, by C. M. Arm- 
strong, of the Baltimore Bar; review of certain results of the 
U. S. census of 1880, by John C. Rose, lecturer (elect) in the 
University of Maryland [Law School]; the revised tariff in 
its relation to the economic history of the United States, by 
Talcott Williams, A. B., of the editorial staff of the Phila- 
delphia Press. Abstracts of some of these papers or commu- 
nications were published in the University Circular, for 
August, 1883, and two or three of the articles will probably 
be printed in the University Studies. The article last named, 



New Methods of Study in History. 105 

on the tariff, will be published by the Society for Political 
Education. 

Occasionally specialists from other colleges or distinguished 
strangers, who are visiting the city, are present by invitation. 
Among other guests during the past year, President White of 
Cornell University has addressed the seminary. It is of no 
slight interest for young men to have among them, now and 
then, some veteran in the field of history or politics, who by 
his pithy sayings and friendly suggestions can sometimes do 
more in a half hour for the development of the seminary than 
would days of passive reading. The older members of the 
seminary can never forget the deep impressions made upon 
students of history in Baltimore by the late Professor J. L. 
Diman, of Brown University, who, during his lectureship at 
the Johns Hopkins University, addressed the Association of 
Historical and Political Science. The youngest members still 
speak with pleasure of Mr. Edward A. Freeman, who, by special 
invitation, gave the University students of history six extem- 
pore " talks ^^ upon the geography and history of south-eastern 
Europe, whence he had recently come. Nor will some of 
these students ever forget the enthusiasm with which Mr. 
Freeman entered into the rooms for special research in the 
university library to examine the ancient laws of Maryland 
and to talk of English institutions with the students who* 
were there at work. Among other interesting addresses, given 
especially for the benefit of the Seminary, was that by James 
Bryce, M. P., Begins professor of civil law in the University 
of Oxford, on "The Relation of Law to History." Mr. 
Bryce gave a general course to students of the University on 
" English Problems," but the special lecture was by request 
of the students of history. (For a brief abstract of his remarks 
as reported by the secretary of the Historical and Political 
Science Association, see University Circular, February, 1882). 
Recently, November 23, 1883, Mr. Bryce addressed the semi- 
nary upon the subject of De Tocqueville^s Democracy in 
America, suggesting certain points of criticism and original 
14 



106 New Methods of Study in History. . 

research (see University Circular, January, 1884). Dr. H. 
von Hoist, of the University of Freiburg in Baden, has also 
addressed the seminary at a recent date, October 12, 1883, 
(see University Circular, January, 1884,) upon the study of 
slavery as an institution, with suggestions as to the possibili- 
ties of the southern field of research for students at the Johns 
Hopkins University. 

With the opening of the present academic year, 1883-4, 
the seminary of historical and political science took up its 
abode in new and more spacious rooms than those hitherto 
occupied. The seminary is now established in the thii'd story 
of the building devoted to the main university library, of 
which the seminary books form a subordinate section. As you 
enter the seminary-library, which occupies a room fifty-one 
by twenty-nine feet, the most noticeable object is the long 
library-table around which students are seated, every man 
in his own place, with his own draAver for writing materials. 
Upon the walls above the table are portraits of men who have 
influenced the development of the Baltimore seminary — G. H. 
Pertz, Bluntschli, Freeman, Bryce, Von Hoist, Cooley, Diman. 
Busts of Jared Sparks, Francis Lieber aigid other distinguished 
representatives of history and politics give to mere aggrega- 
tions of books the presence of personality. The library is 
arranged in alcoves around the seminary-table with primary 
regard to the convenience of students, who help themselves to 
books without any formality. American history (state and 
national) occupies the most honored place. International law, 
politics, administration, economics and social science, history 
(European, ecclesiastical, classical, oriental), archaeology, and 
law (Roman, German, French, and English), have each their 
proper place. Within the alcoves are tables for special work, 
which places are assigned to advanced students holding 
the honors of the department. These tables are somewhat 
secluded from the general view by revolving book-cases, 
wherein books in current use are placed, as we say, "on reser- 
vation." The newspapers taken by the department are dis- 



New Methods of Study in History. 107 

tributed in the various alcoves of politics, economics, law, 
history, etc. Keligious journals are to be found upon the 
ecclesiastical table. 

The current magazines of historical and political science, 
together with new books and university publications, are kept 
upon the long seminary-table, which represents the centre of 
scientific life for those who gather about it. The latest and 
freshest contributions are here displayed; and when the new 
becomes old, it is swept away into the alcoves, to side-tables 
where it still remains for some w^eeks on exhibition until it 
is finally classified in pigeon-holes, pamphlet-files, or bound 
volumes. The back numbers of all special magazines like the 
Revue Historique, Historische Zeitschrift, Preussische Jahr- 
bilcher, Tiibinger Zeitschrift, Conrad's Jahrblicher, Revue de 
Droit International, taken by the department are kept for 
consultation in a room specially devoted to that purpose. In 
addition to these rooms there are separate offices for the various 
instructors, two lecture-rooms, a newspaper bureau, a geograph- 
ical and statistical bureau, and the beginning of an historical 
museum, — some of which features of the seminary will be 
described in another connection. 

Seminary Life. 

It is easy thus to outline a few external characteristics of 
the seminary, but difficult to picture its inner life. Its work- 
ings are so complex and varied, that it cannot be confined 
within walls or restricted to a single library. Its members 
are to be found, now in its own rooms, now at the Peabody 
Institute, or again in the library of the Maryland Historical 
Society. Sometimes its delegates may be seen in the libraries 
of Philadelphia, or in the Library of Congress, or in some 
parish registry of South Carolina, or in some town clerk's 
office in New England. One summer the president of the 
university found a Johns Hopkins student in Quebec study- 
ing French parishes and Canadian feudalism. The next 



108 New Methods of Study in History, . 

summer, this same student, at present a fellow of history, was 
visiting lona and tramping through the parishes of England. 
He called by the wayside upon the English historian, Mr. 
Ereeman, at his home in Somerset. Once the seminary sent 
a deputy in winter to a distant village community upon the 
extreme eastern point of Long Island, East Hampton, where 
he studied the history of the common lands at Moutauk, with 
the queen of the Montauk Indians for his sovereign protectress 
and chief cook. Half a dozen members of the seminary 
have gone off together upon an archaeological excursion, for 
example, to an old Maryland parish, like St. John's, where 
lies the ruined town of Joppa,^ the original seat of Baltimore 
county ; or again, to North Point, the scene of an old battle 
ground and the first site of St. Paul's, the original parish 
church of Baltimore ; and still again, to Annapolis, where, with 
a steam launch belonging to the Naval Academy, and under 
the guidance of a local antiquary, they visited Greenberry's 
Point, upon the river Severn, the site of that ancient Puritan 
commonwealth Avhich migrated from Virginia and was origi- 
nally called Providence, from which sprang the Puritan 
capital of Maryland. Reports of these archaeological excur- 
sions, written by members of the seminary connected with the 
Baltimore press, found their way into the public prints and 
were read by many people in town and country, who thus 
became more deeply interested in the history of Maryland. 

The scientific sessions of the Seminary, two hours each 
week, are probably the least of its work, for every member is 
engaged upon some branch of special research, which occupies 
a vast amount of time. liesearches are prosecuted upon the 
economic principles of division of labor and co-operation. 
This co-operation appears not merely in the inter-dependence 
of student-monographs, but in every day student-life. A 



^ With tlie return of spring, the Seminary will return to the vicinity of 
.Topi)a for the sake of exploiting fifteen Indian graves which are to be opened 
in the interest of science by the present projjrietor. 



New Ildhods of Study in History. 109 

word is passed here, a hint is given there ; a new fact or 
reference, casually discovered by one man, is communicated to 
another to whom it is of more special interest ; a valuable 
book, found in some Baltimore library or antiquarian book- 
store, is recommended, or purchased for a friend. These 
things, however, are only indications of that kindly spirit of 
co-operation which flows steadily on beneath the surface of 
student-life. It is interesting to observe this spirit of friendly 
reciprocity even among rivals, for university honors, that is, 
for fellowships and scholarships. Individual ambition is un- 
doubtedly a strong motive in student- work, but there is such a 
thing among students everywhere as ambition for others, call 
it class spirit, esprit de corps, good fellowship, or good will to 
men. The Baltimore seminary is individually ambitious, but 
it hails wdth delight the rise of similar associations elsewhere, 
at Harvard University, at the University of Pennsylvania 
(Wharton School), Cornell University, University of Mich- 
igan, University of Wisconsin, University of Nebraska, and 
University of California. All these seminaries are individu- 
ally ambitious, but it is ambition for the common cause of 
science. They are all pushing forward theii' lines of research, 
but all are co-operating for the advancement of American 
History. 

The Seminary Library. 

The library of the seminary of historical and political 
science began in the collection of colonial records, state laws, 
and American archives for the encouragement of students in 
American institutional history. The collection was at first 
increased from the main library of the university, which 
transferred all special works relating to this department ; then, 
gradual purchases were made of institutional and economic 
material from England and Germany, in the special interest of 
the seminary. In December, 1882, the private library of the 
late Dr. John Caspar Bluntschli, of Heidelberg, was incor- 
porated into that of the seminary, after presentation to the 



110 Xnr Mdhoih of Stiuiif in Ilhfon/, 

rnivoi-sity bv iho (uTnuui oiti/ons ot* Ualtiinoiv. Tlio Hlunt- 
sohli Hhrarv, cvntaininii' noarly tlinv thous;uul voluims, with 
alxnit four thousand j>:unphlots. ivpivsonts the soiontitic ih>1Uh^ 
tions oC a biHviil-niindcHl sptvialisi in historioal and political 
SiMoniv, whoso liorizon of intoix^t \\ iilomxl gnuhially iVoni the 
|KM\l-np limits of a Swiss ^"anton to nunlorn Knropoan states 
and to iho law of nations. ]>lnntsohli's professional position 
at Mnnioh as historian oi* political soion^v and as txlitor of tho 
(itTnian ]>olitii\\l dictionary, his life as pivfossor and prai^ 
tioal politician at llcidcllvrix. his presidency ot' the JnMitut 
de Dmit InternationaJ, bn^nixht hin\ into scientitie assoiaation 
with spcvialists, not only in Oennanv, bnt in Holland, Bel- 
iriuni, Franiv, Italy, Anstria, Russia, and Knirland; cxniso- 
qnently, his library is esptvially rich in books, which cranio 
to him from distinirnishcxl writei-s in all these anintries. Upon 
the Ivisis of this Kni\>pean <.\>lhvtion, representino- the laws 
and histiM'v of the old world, the Raltiniort^ sen\inary, tn^nseions 
of its HeidellxTi:: inherit^unw pivposes now to bnild np an 
An\eri«.^\n iH^lhvtion which shall represent the history, laws, 
and institntions of the new world. Already sincv the a«.Hpii- 
sition of the Rlnntschli cvlhvtion. the j^cniinarv library has 
ineivased to over eijrht thonsiind vohunes. l>esides many 
private donations, it has iwvivixl two largv oifts of irovern- 
niont dixnnnents, one from the state department, the other from 
the department of the interior; and it will hernvforth be one 
of the ^Taryland rc^positories for all pnblie divnments issntxl 
by the I'nitoil States. The sen\inary has sent ont a eircnlar 
letter to stvn^^arit^ of the individnal states. n\ayors of cities, 
and to pron\inent otHcials in varions stations, ri\|nestinLr dona- 
tions of dcvnments and ivports for the increase of its library ; 
and the nnnrns are altOiXi^ther irratifyin<2:. It is hoptxl that 
irradnally the difterent strata of Americ-an institntional and 
ooiMiomic history, fi\>m Ux'ixl and mnnicipal to state and 
national life, mav W n^pix^ented in the scientitie i\>llections oi 
the Johns Hopkins I'nivei'sity. 



New Md/iodH of Htadtj in Ilidorij. Ill 

J>LIIN'rS(JIIIJ AND JilKBKU M A N HSriM l"j;s. 

'Die most ('li(!rislH!(l part of tlio B(;rnliiiiry library in kcrpt in a 
sj)C(5ial casOj dovotod to tlic wril;i)i<)jH of l>hiri(s('lili and Li(^bcr. 
Tli(i J^luntHchli faiiiily ui)d(!i"sLood well tliat tin; maniiHcriptH 
of tlic (l(!(!(^;i8cd Hcholar and statoHrnan would bo most fittingly 
prcHcrvcd in connection witli his own library. Altlioiij^ii the 
nianuH(;ript (iollecjtion was no pMi't of Mie originn,! piinjliane 
\\\;uU) by ilie German citiz(Mis of Baltimore in the interewts of 
llic lliiiversity, yet witli the ])ur(5lias(!d library came also the 
mjiiniscripts as a i'rco j^ift. T]\v,y (comprise not alone tin; 
m;it(irials nscnl in some of liis <i,reat works, but «m,1so written 
le(^tin*es u|)on various subjects and even his note-books, kej)t 
while list(!ning as a stud(!nt to ^reat masters like Niebnhr and 
Savij2;ny. The note-books are nil flruily bouud jiiid '.ivo wi-It- 
tcii iu the same neat, fine hand whicih characterized Jiluntschli^B 
jnaiHiscripts to the last. These note-books, quarto siz(!, witli 
six larnje pam))lil(!t-boxes of written kictures and other 
manus(;ript matei'ials, have ibr two of Jiluntschli's pupils, 
now instructors in the de])artment of history and economics, a 
certain Affedionmmilh ; aud for all others who visit or use the 
library these original manuscripts are an object of very grciat 
int(!rest. Th(!y are kc])t together with ;i c()m[)lete set of 
l>luiits(;hli's own writings, which are very nuinerons and 
include a large collection of sj)ecial monograj)hs. It is hy 
a j)eculiar historic fitjiess that the pul>Iished works and 
manuscripts of two men like l^luntschli and Lieber, who 
wer(! devoted friends in lif;, nre now brought tog(;ther after 
their death. Bluntschli and Lieber never met face to face; 
they were friends, however, by long correspon(kjn(;e and l)y 
common sympathies. IJebcr used to say that he in N(!W 
York, J^luiits(;hli in JleideH)erg, and J.(aboulaye in Paris 
formed a '^scientific clover-h^fif,^^ representing the interna- 
tional character of French, German, and Anglo-American 
culture. 



112 New Methods of Study in History. 

The widow of Francis Lieber, rejoicing that the Bluntschli 
Library is now in America, has determined that the manuscripts 
of her husband shall henceforth be associated with those of 
his old friend. She has accordingly sent to the Johns Hop- 
kins University the Lieber papers, with annotated, inter- 
leaved copies of his various works. They have all been 
placed in the same case with the Bluntschli writings, to which 
have been added the works of Laboulaye, so that the "scientific 
clover-leaf" w^ill remain undivided. Lieber's bust, presented 
by his widow, now stands by the side of Bluntschli's portrait. 
Although , Laboulaye became alienated from his two old 
friends in consequence of the Franco-Prussian war, yet, as 
Bluntschli well said, "that community of thought, science, 
and endeavor, which we represented for three peoples and for 
three civilizations, is not broken up, but will broaden and 
deepen and become more fruitful, as surely as the peculiar 
spirit and individual forms of nationality, existing of their 
own right, find their true harmony and highest end in the 
development of humanity.'^ ^ 

The Pamphlet Collection. 

The most available part of the Bluntschli Library is its 
pamphlet collection. Scholars were in the habit of sending 
to him their minor treatises ; so that his collection of mono- 
graphs is of a very superior character and, in all probability, 
could not be duplicated. The collection has been rapidly 
increased by frequent pamphlet-donations from President Gil- 
man, Hon. George William Brown, and other members of 
the Board of Trustees ; from lawyers in Baltimore and various 
friends of the University. The problem of adequately pro- 
viding for the temporary exhibition and final preservation of 

' Dr. J. C. Bluntschli, " Lieber's Service to Political Science and Inter- 
national Law," an article written by recjuest as an introduction to the second 
volume of Lieber's Miscellaneous Writings, edited by D. C. Oilman, Presi- 
dent of the Johns Hopkins University. 



New Methods of Study in History, 113 

these incoming pamphlets was a difficult one to solve. Books 
are easily managed in alcoves and in department-groups, but 
the proper treatment of unbound, defenceless pamphlets is 
the hardest thing in library-administration. The solution 
attempted in the seminary is the preliminary exposition of 
new pamphlets in special groups, — law, politics, economics, 
social and educational questions, history, etc., upon a long 
table extending the full length of the Library at right angles 
with the book alcoves and following the alcove classification ; 
i, e., all historical pamphlets are in immediate proximity to 
historical books. Beneath the long table are very many 
pigeon-holes for the temporary classification of pamphlets and 
magazines that have passed the exhibition-stage. In their 
final treatment, magazines are bound and placed in a room 
specially devoted to bound journals ; old pamphlets are gath- 
ered together in Woodruff-files (now in general use in govern- 
ment departments at Washington) and are placed upon book- 
shelves by the side of that class of books to Avhich the 
pamphlet category belongs. The Woodruif-file holds a vast 
number of pamphlets upright, with the title-pages facing the 
person opening the file. This receptacle has a wooden front, 
bearing the label of the pamphlet-class, and opens like a 
drawer. The rapidity and ease with which pamphlets can 
thus be handled are very great improvements upon old- 
fashioned pamphlet-cases or Clacher-boxes. With all pam- 
phlets indexed in a card-catalogue by subject, author, and 
class, any minor treatise of a few pages may be as quickly 
found as a bound volume. For students, these minor treatises 
are often of more consequence than ponderous folios. The 
Woodruff-file can be made to suit pamphlets of any width or 
any height. The size chiefly used by the Seminary is eleven 
inches high, seven and three-quarters inches wide, and ten and 
one-half inches deep. These dimensions fit exactly the shelv- 
ing allotted to pamphlets. It is very important to have the 
wooden front of sufficient height to fill the space between two 
shelves, in order to keep out dust. For the latter purpose, 
15 



114 New Methods of Study in History. 

the so-called ^^ Claclier-box '' is excellent. It has a spring- 
back and a bottom-slide upon which the pamphlets stand 
upright when drawn out from the case. Clacher-boxes are 
used in the Seminary upon the tops of revolving book-cases, 
where they stand firmly by their own weight and Avhere pam- 
phlets can be handled without touching the receptacle save 
opening its door and pulling out the bottom-slide. 

Pamphlet Groups. 

The following classification of seminary pamphlets has been 
prepared as a simple report of progress, without any preten- 
sions to completeness, even with reference to the seminary col- 
lections, wherein remains much material yet to be assorted. 
The list will serve to characterize the convenient method of 
grouping masses of pamphlets in Woodruff files. The rubrics 
will of course be differentiated and continually increased as 
new materials are added and as the old are gradually better 
arranged. Pamphlets cease to be rubbish as soon as they are 
classified upon scientific principles. " It is impossible to 
say," declares Justin Winsor, ^' Avhat ephemeral publication 
may not become of cardinal interest." 

Historiccd. 

Ancient Historv ; — Chnrch History ; — European History ; — United States ; 
Kew England ; — New York ; — Pennsylvania ; — New Jersey and Dela- 
ware; — Maryland; — Baltimore; — Virginia; — the South in general; — 
the Civil War; — Western States; — Territories, etc. 

PoUtical, 

Political Philosophy ; — Political Science ; — Administration ; — Civil 
Service Eeform ; — Elections ; — Representation (Minorities) ; — Political 
Questions ; — (a) United States, (6) England, (c) France, {d) Germany, (e) 
Austria, (/) Switzerland, (r/) Italy, (A) Greece, (t) Russia, etc. 

International Laic. 

General International Law ; — Institut de Droit International ; — Inter- 
national Conferences ; — Arbitration ; — Intervention ; — Extradition ; — Neu- 



New Methods of Study in History, 115 

trality ; — Treaties ; — War ; — Consular Reports ; — Private International 
Law. 

Internationcd Politics. 

Foreign Eelations of the United States ; — England ; — France ; — Ger- 
many ; — Switzerland ; — Italy ; — Eussia — Schleswig-Holstein ; — Franco- 
Prussian War ; — Eastern Question ; — International politics in general. 

Institutional. 

Institutions in general ; — The Family ; — Marriage ; — Contracts ; — Slav- 
ery ; — Serfdom ; — Nobility ; — Land Tenure ; — Local Institutions ; — City 
Government ; — State Government ; — ISJ^ational Institutions ; — Public 
Lands, etc. 

Constitutional. 

United States ; — England ; — Switzerland ; — Law of Cantons, (a) Appen- 
zell-Lucerne, (b) Neuchatel-Ziirich ; — German Empire ; — Laws of German 
States, Anhalt-Wiirtemberg ; — France ; — Austria ; — Italy ; — Greece, etc. 

Legal. 

Law in general ; — History of Law ; — the Civil Law in general ; — Civil 
Procedure, (a) Eoman, (b) in General; — Judicial Organization; — Criminal 
Law ; — Penal Codes ; — Sachsenspiegel ; — Schwabenspiegel ; — other early 
Codes ; — Law of Personal Eelations ; — Succession ; — Inheritance ; — Swiss 
Private Law ; — Law Tracts ; — Law-Briefs (American) ; — Sales ; — Lite- 
rary Property, etc. 

JEconomic. 

Economic History ; — Baltimore Economics ; — Maryland Economics ; — 
Economics of Cities ; — State Economics ; — U. S. Finance ; — Money ; — 
Banking; — Checks; — Mortgages; — Debts; — Tariff; — Labor and Capi- 
tal ; — Laboring Classes ; — Manufactures ; — Commerce ; — Shij)ping ; — 
Eailroads ; — Canals ; — Internal Improvements ; — Agriculture ; — Statis- 
tics, etc. 

Social. 

Social Science, (a) American Association, (6) Philadelphia Association ; — 
American Colonization Society ; — Social Problems ; — The Poor ; — Prisons 
and Prison Eeform ; — Charities, (a) of Baltimore, (b) other Cities, (c) in 
general ; — Organization of Charities ; — Temperance Eeform ; — Sanitary 
Science ; — Parks, Tillage and City Improvement, etc. 

Religious and Ecclesiastical. 

History of Eeligions ; — Eeligion in general ; — Church and State ; — 
Ecclesiastical Law ; — Ecclesiastical Questions (Europe), (a) before the Vat- 
ican Council, {b) since the Vatican Council; — Eeligious Questions in 
America ; — Eeligion and Science, etc. 



116 New Methods of Study in History. 

Educational. 

Education in general ; — Education in Baltimore ; — Peabody Institute ; — 
Johns Hopkins University ; — Universities and Colleges ; — Common 
Schools, — Education in New England; — Southern Education (Slater and 
Peabody Funds) ; — Indian and Negro Education ; — Industrial Education ; 
— Bureau of Education ; — Libraries ; — Library Administration ; — Bibliog- 
raphies ; — Catalogues and Book Notices. 

Since the above list was prepared the seminary has received 
a large donation of pamphlets from Hon. George W. Dobbin, 
president of the board of trustees, also the loan, by the presi- 
dent of the university, of a large portion of his private and 
official collections. This new material greatly enriches the 
pamphlet-stores of the seminary, and will lead to the forma- 
tion of many new rubrics. The most recent donation of 
pamphlets is that received March 10, 1884, from Mrs. 
Francis Lieber, of Newport, E,. I., who has contributed a 
valuable private collection of Dr. Lieber 's monographs and 
a rare set of pamphlets relating to the Mexican Claim Com- 
mission, upon which Dr. Lieber served as umpire. It is 
interesting to find, among the Lieber papers, articles that 
were sent him by Bluntschli, and, aitiong the Bluntschli 
pamphlets, many that were presented by Lieber. 

The Newspaper Bureau. 

One of the most interesting, if not the most valuable features 
of the seminary library, is the so-called newspaper bureau. 
This consists primarily of an office wherein the newspapers of 
the day are reduced to their lowest terms for purposes of his- 
torical and political science. Files of representative journals 
are contributed to the seminary by the Young Men's Christian 
Association, the University Club, and by the Mercantile 
Library, of Baltimore, while many critical journals are 
obtained directly for the seminary by private donation or in 
exchange for university publications. Certain files, like the 
Saturday Review, The Nation, The American (of Philadelphia), 



New Methods of Study in History. 117 

The Literary World, The Critic, The Economist, Bradstreet's, 
&c., are preserved for future reference; but the great majority 
of papers are cut to pieces for scientific purposes. A compe- 
tent force of graduate students work an hour or two each 
week under the direction of one of their number, who is a 
trained editor, and mark superior articles upon economic, 
political, social, educational, legal, and historical subjects. 
These marked papers are excerpted during the succeeding week 
by an office-boy and, afterwards, the editor in charge, with the 
aid of the two fellows, scholars, and students in the department 
of History and Politics, assort the articles into their various 
categories and arrange them upon alphabetical principles in 
newspaper budgets, which are kept in large congress-envelopes, 
or oblong boxes, bearing each its printed label and all classi- 
fied alphabetically in four hundred compartments, somewhat 
like those of a post-office, except that they are arranged in an 
upright position upon an inclined plane, so that the labels, 
upon the upper end of the boxes, easily catch the eye. These 
boxes bear such labels as Army and ^STavy, Archaeology, Afri- 
can Exploration, Australian Confederation, Baltimore (His- 
tory, Government, &c. ), Banking, Biography, Butlerism, 
Canals, Charities, City Government, Civil Service, Commerce 
and Trade, Communism and Socialism, Competition, Co-op- 
eration, Debts and Repudiation, Divorce, Egypt, Forestry, 
Immigration, Indian Question, Institutions, Jewish Question, 
Journalism, Labor, Land, Money, Xegro Question, Popula- 
tion, Parks, Railroads, Strikes, Telegraphs, Telephones, Tem- 
perance, Universities, Women, etc. When the boxes become 
full, they are referred to special committees for further reduc- 
tion and further differentiation. Thus the subject-categories 
continually increase, and, when the post-office compartments 
become inadequate. Woodruff-files, or some other good device, 
will be employed, and the newspaper-budgets will thus finally 
become classified like pamphlets. 

While by far the greater portion of the newspaper-clippings 
find their way into these envelope-boxes for future reference 



118 New Methods of Study in History. 

and final sifting by special committees (tlius furnishing some- 
times suggestive materials for a report to the seminary) the 
choicest extracts from a few leading papers, which are clipped 
almost as soon as they come, are placed upon special bulletin- 
boards devoted each to some one department. There is one 
board for Foreign Intelligence or International Politics, where 
in turn appear France in Asia, the question of international 
control of the river Congo, England in Egypt, etc. Another 
bulletin-board bears the heading ^'American Politics,'^ with 
special sub-headings chalked out from Aveek to week. A 
third board is devoted to Economic and Social Questions, 
where the Tariff figures largely. A fourth space is given up 
to General History; a fifth to Ecclesiastical matters; and a 
sixth, the largest of all, to Book Notices, Education, Uni- 
versity affairs, and student-interests in general. The sub- 
headings under which the various clippings are grouped are 
changed from week to w^eek, when the old material is cleared 
off and a new lot tacked up. The idea is to exhibit the current 
topics for a week's time, in so far as they relate to the interests 
of the seminary. The young men who attend to these bulle- 
tin-boards for their fellow students are lei^rning not only crit- 
ical and orderly methods, but also the potential process of 
making up a journal of historical and political science. They 
are learning to be journalists and editors. Without professing 
to be a school of journalism, the seminary has furnislicd writers 
for each of the })rominent papers in the city of Baltimore and 
for some at a distance, while several of its members have 
secured editorial positions. 

But the chief advantages of the newspaper bureau are for 
the seminary at large. The classification and preservation of 
the best articles on economic, social, and political to[)ics are 
found by all to be exceedingly useful. How often does one 
wish that he had saved the report of some court decision, 
important trial, political discussion, scholar's address, a states- 
man's speech, a department report, a mayor's message, divorce 
statistics, new facts and illustrations ! How often these things 



New Methods of Study in History. 119 

would work into tlie ^varp and woof of a student's task, if lie 
couki only lay his hand upon them at the right moment ! It 
is idle to disparage the daily press ; it is worse than idle to 
sneer at present politics. Some of the best energies of our 
time are revealed in the newspaper and in politico-economic 
discussion. We may believe one of Berlin's professors when 
he says^ "Das loas heute Politih ist, gehort morgen der Ge- 
schichte an.'^ ^ This is only another form of the motto adapted 
from a saying of Mr. Freeman's — History is past Politics and 
Politics is present History , — a motto printed upon the wall 
of the seminary, immediately above the newspaper cabinet and 
by the side of the English historian's portrait. So well does 
Mr. Freeman appreciate the political spirit of the historical 
seminary that he sends it almost every fortnight a budget of 
English newspapers, w^ith marked articles, for example, 
upon the Lord Mayor, London Municipal Reform, Borough 
Elections, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Govern- 
ment and the Suez Canal, Canada, Australian Confederation, 
the Flemish Movement in Belgium, the Norwegian Ministry, 
the Queen's Speech, Mr. Freeman's Lecture before the Glou- 
cester Cathedral Society, Henry George, Land Reform Union, 
Representation, the Parliamentary Franchise, the Stowe Man- 
uscripts in the British Museum. 

A most interesting illustration of the value of newspapers, 
even for the student of the Norman Conquest, is the report 
published in the the Sussex Express, August 4, 1883, of the 
Proceedings of the Royal Arch£eological Institute, during its 
last summer excm-sion to Lewes, ^ the Castle of Pavensey, to 
Hastings, and the hill of Senlec, when Mr. Freeman reviewed, 
in open air, the story of Harold and the Norman invader. If 



^ What is Politics to-daj, becomes History to-morrow. — Drojsen, His- 
torik, 4. 

^Mr. Freeman's address at the annual meeting of the Archteological 
Institute at Lewes, July 31, 1883, is printed in the Archseological Jom-nal, 
vol. xi, 335, " The Early History of Sussex." 



120 New Methods of Study in History. 

historians and newspapers can make such scenes live anew and 
kindle signal interest among students on this side of the 
Atlantic, then are historical writings and newspaper heralds 
worthy of honorable association. 

List of Journals. 

The following special journals, magazines, reviews, news- 
papers and other periodicals are at present received by the 
Seminary of Historical and Political Science. Some are 
obtained by subscription ; others in exchange for University 
publications; still others by donation or through the courtesy 
of public officials. The seminary is under special obligations 
to the Mercantile Library, the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, the University Club (all of Baltimore) for the gift of 
newspapers for clipping purposes ; to the University Library 
for the deposit of special reviews in the department of Histor- 
ical and Political Science; and to the Publication Agency of 
the University for the care taken in securing exchanges that 
are useful to students of history, economics, and social prob- 
lems. 

Historical. ' 

Revue Hist ori que, bi-monthly, Paris; — Bulletins de la Societe Histo- 
rique et Cercle Saint Simon, occasional, Paris; — Plistorische Zeitschrift, bi- 
monthly, edited by H. von Sybel, Munich and Leipzig ; — Antiquarian 
Magazine, monthly, edited by Edward Walford, London; — Proceedings of 
the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. ; — Proceedings of the 
Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, Philadelpliia ; — The American Anti- 
quarian, quarterly, edited by the Rev. S. D. Peet, Chicago ; — Proceedings of 
the American Historic, Genealogical Society, Boston ; — The Magazine of 
American History, edited by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, New York ; — Penn- 
sylvania ^lagazine of History and Biography, Philadelphia ; — Maryland 
Historical Society Fund Publications, occasional, Baltimore; — Southern 
Historical Society Papers, monthly, edited by the Rev. J. William Jones, 
Richmond; — Essex Institute Historical Collections, quarterly, Salem, 
Mass.; — Contributions of the Old Residents' Historical Association, occa- 
sional, Lowell, Mass.; — The Bay State Monthly, published by John A. 
McClintock & Co., Boston ; — The Granite Monthly, edited by J. N. 
McClintock, Concord, N. H. ; — Kansas City Review (of Archaeology and 
Anthropology) edited by T. S. Case, Kansas City, Mo. ; — The United Ser- 
vice, a monthly review of military and naval affairs, Philadelphia. 



New Meiliods of Study in History. 121 

Political. 

A. FOREIGN MAGAZINES. 

Zeitschrift fiir die gesammte Staatswissenschaft, bi-monthly, edited by 
Doctors Fricker, Schaffle, and Wagner, Tubingen ; — Preussische Jahr- 
biicher, monthly, edited by H. von Treitschke and H. Delbriick, Berlin ; — 
Jahrbuch fiir Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung and Volkswirthschaft im Deutschen 
Eeich, in parts, edited by Gustav Schmoller, Leipzig. 

B. — ^AMERICAN SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS. 

Civil Service Eecord, monthly, Boston and Cambridge ; — Publications of 
the Civil Service Reform Association, New York ; — Congressional Record, 
daily, Washington; — Monthly Bulletin of the Publications of the U. S. 
Government, James Anglim, Washington ; — Journal of the House of Dele- 
gates and Senate Journal, daily, Annapolis. 

C. — WEEKLY PAPERS. 

The Nation, New York; — The Weekly Press, Philadelphia ; — The 
American, Philadelphia ; — The Advertiser, Boston ; — The Sunday Herald, 
Boston ; — The Springfield Eepublican ; — The Cincinnati Weekly News ; — 
San Francisco Weekly Bulletin. 

D. DAILY PAPERS. 

The Sun, The American, The Day (all of Baltimore) ; —The Post, Wash- 
ington ; — Evening Post, New York ; — New York Herald ; — New York 
Tribune ; — Cincinnati Commercial ; — Chicago Tribune ; ■ — St. Louis He- 
publican ; — Minneapolis Tribune ; — Toronto Globe ; — Louisville Courier ; 
— Richmond Dispatch ; — Charleston News and Courier ; — Boston Journal ; — 
Der Deutsche Correspondent (Balto.) 

Economical. 

The Bankers' Magazine and Statistical Register, monthly, edited by 
Albert S. Bolles, New York ; — Bradstreet's, — ^A Journal of Trade, Finance, 
and Public Economy, weekly, edited by W. D. Ford, New York ; — Economic 
Tracts, published by the society for political education, New York ; — The 
American Protectionist, weekly, edited by Marcus Hanlon, New York ; — 
The American Free Trader, monthly, New York ; — The Economist, weekly, 
London; — The Investor's Manual, weekly, London; — L'Economiste 
Franpais, weekly, Paris ; — Journal des Economistes. Revue de la Science 
Economique et de la Science Stutisti^ue, monthly, Paris ; — Jahrbiicher fiir 
National okonomie und Statistik, monthly, edited J. Conrad, Jena ; — Balti- 
more ]\Ianufacturer's Record, weekly ; — Annual Reports of the Secretary of 
the Treasury on the state of the Finances, Washington ; — Bulletin of the 

16 



122 Keiv Methods of Study in Ilistonj. 

National Association of Vrool Manufacturers, quarterly, edited l)y J. L. 
Ilajes, Boston; — Annual Reports, Baltimore Corn and Flour Exchange. 

Statistical. 

Journal of the Statistical Society, quarterly, London ; — Zeitschrift des 
koniglich. Preussischen Statistischen Bureaus, semi-annual, edited by E. 
Blenck, Berlin; — Quarterly Reports of the Bureau of Statistics, Joseph 
Nimmo, Washington ; — Statistical Abstract of the United States, occasional, 
Joseph Nimmo, Washington ; — Reports of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 
Massachusetts, Carroll D. Wriglit, Boston. 

Geographical. 

Petermann's Mitteilungen aus Justus Perthes's Geographischer Anstalt, 
monthly, edited by Dr. E. Belim, Gotha ; — Publications of the United 
States Coast Survey and of the U. S. Corjps of Engineers. 

Municipcd. 

Mayors' Messages and Reports of City Officers, annual, Baltimore, Boston, 
New York, Brooklyn, Providence, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, 
Charleston, Cleveland, Toledo, Kansas City, etc. 

Social. 

La Rdforme Sociale, fortnightly, Paris ; — Reports of the Chief Inspector 
of Factories and Workshops, Blue Books, annual, London ; — Howard Asso- 
ciation Reports (for crime-prevention and ])enal reform), annual, London ; — 
Rejwrts of the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, IVLissachusett^, 
annual; — The Journal of Social Science* containing the Proceedings 
of the American Social Science Association; — Pul)lications of the Phila- 
delphia Social Science Association ; — Reports of the Society for the Protec- 
tion of Children from Cruelty and Immorality, anmial, Baltimore; — The 
American Sentry, weekly, New York ; — Progress, weekly, Philadelphia ; — 
The Woman's Journal, weekly, Boston ; — Annual Reports of the New York 
Society fur the suj)pression of vice. 

Socialistic. 

The Christian Socialist, monthly, Ijondon ; — Justice, weekly, London; — 
To-Day, monthly, London ; — Wochenblatt der New Yorker Volks/.eitung ; — 
Die Fackc'l, Sonntagsblatt der Chicagoer Arl^eiter-Zeitung, Socialistic Pub- 
lishing Co., Chicago; — Vorbote, unalihiingiges Organ fiir die wahren Inter- 
essen des Proletariats, weekly, Socialistic Publishing Co., Chicago; — 
Truth, a Journal for the Poor, edited by B. G. Haskell, San Francisco; — 
Sociologist, monthly, Knoxville, Tenu. ; — Le Proletaire, organe olliciel de 



New Methods of Study in History, 123 

la federation des travailleurs socialistes, weekly, Paris ; — The Free Soiler 
(advocating the nationalization of Land), monthly, edited by J. B. Robinson, 
New York. 

Legal and International. 

Revue de Droit International et de Legislation Comparee, monthly, 
edited by Alphonse Rivier, Bruxelles and Leipzig ; — Reports from the Con- 
suls of the United States ; — the Legal Adviser, weekly, edited by E. M. 
Haynes, Chicago. 

Religious and Ecclesiastical} 

The Christian Union, weekly. New York, edited by Rev. Lyman Abbot and 
H. W. Mabie, New York ; — The Congregationalist, weekly, edited by Rev. 
H. M, Dexter, Boston ; — The Independent, edited 'by Rev. W. H. Ward, New 
York ; — N. Y. Observer, weekly, edited by Rev. Irenaeus Prime ; — The 
National Baptist, weekly, edited by Rev. Dr. Way land, Philadelphia ; — The 
Christian Intelligencer, weekly, edited by Rev. J. M. Ferris and Rev. N. H. 
Van Arsdale, New York; — The Christian Advocate, weekly, edited by J. 
M. Buckley, D. D., New York; — The Examiner, weekly, published by 
Bright, Church & Co., New York ; — The Presbyterian, weekly, edited by 
Rev. Dr. Grier, Philadelphia ; — New York Weekly Witness, edited by John 
Dugall, et al. ; — The Churchman, weekly, New York ; — The American Lit- 
erary Churchman, fortnightly, edited by Rev. William Kirkus, Baltimore ; — 
Southern Churchman, weekly, edited by Rev. Dr. Sprigg, Richmond ; — The 
Presbyterian Observer, weekly, edited by Rev. J. M. Maxwell and W. J. 
Graham, Baltimore ; — The Catholic Review, weekly, edited by P. V. Hickey, 
New York ; — The Standard, weekly, edited by J. A. Smith, D. D., Chicago ; 
— The Western Christian Advocate, weekly, edited by F. S. Hoyt, D. D., 
and J. J. Hight, D. D., Cincinnati; — The Episcopal Methodist, weekly. Rev. 
W. K. Boyle, Baltimore ; — The Cumberland Presbyterian, weekly, edited 
by J. R. Brown, D. D., and D. M. Plarris, D. D., Nashville ; — The Protes- 
tant Standard, weekly, edited by Rev. J. A. McGowan, Philadelphia ; — The 
Methodist Protestant, weekly, edited by E. J. Drinkhouse, D. D., Balti- 
more; — The Christian World, weekly, edited by Rev. E. Herbruck and 
Rev. M. Loucks, Dayton, O. ; — Der Lutherische Kirchenfreund, weekly. 



^ This department of religious periodicals is in the special charge of the 
Rev. J. A. Fisher, a graduate student, who is interested in American 
Church History. He finds the religious press extremely valuable for frag- 
ments of denominational history ; bibliographical references ; discussions of 
religious, educational, and social questions ; court decisions on ecclesiastical 
property ; ecclesiastical trials ; statistical tables ; denominational colleges, 
church and school ; church architecture. In a religious paper attention is 
called to a newly discovered MS. of the second century, throwing light on 
the origin of church government (see The Independent, February 28, March 
6, 13, 1884). 



124 New Ilethods of Study in History. 

Chicago ; — The Christian Observer, weekly, edited by Kev. F. B. and T. E. 
Converse, Louisville; — The Episcopal Eecorder, weekly, edited by Kev. 
Wm. Newton, D, D., and Saml. Ashhurst, M. D., Baltimore. 

Literary and Educational. 

The Literary World, fortnightly, Boston; — The Critic and Good Litera- 
ture, edited by J. L. and J. B. Gilder, Xew York; — The Current, weekly, 
edited by E. L. Wakeman, Chicago; — The Overland Monthly, San Fran- 
cisco ; — Publications of the City and Guilds of London Institute for the ad- 
vancement of Technical Education ; — Annual Beports of the Public Educa- 
tion Association, Philadelphia; — Publications of the Cleveland Educational 
Bureau (Boolcs for the People) ; — Ward and Lock's Penny Books for tlie 
People (Historical and Biographical Series), London ; — The School Herald, 
fortnightly, edited by W. I. Chase, Chicago; — The Southern Workman, 
monthly, edited by S. C. Armstrong and H. W. Ludlow (i^rinted by students) 
Hampton, Va. ; — The Morning Star, monthly, Carlisle, Pa. (representing 
the Indian Industrial School); — The Week, McDonogh Institute, Balti- 
more County, Md. (printed by the boys and representing a remarkable juve- 
nile society, soon to be described in the "Studies" ) ; — The African Reposi- 
tory, quarterly, Washington, J). C. (organ of the American Colonization 
Society) ; — The Herald-Crimson, daily, Cambridge, Mass.; — The Amherst 
[Mass.] Student, fortnightly ; — Johns Hopkins University Circulars, monthly, 
Baltimore. 

Bibliographical. 

Harvard L^niversity Bulletins, quarterly, edited by Justin Winsor, Cam- 
bridge; — Bulletins of the Boston Public Library, quarterly; — Monthly 
Reference-Lists, edited by W. E. Foster, Providence Public Library, 
R. L; — Worcester Free Public Library, LJlsts of Additions, with Notes, 
monthly, edited by S. S. Green. 

The above lists represent merely the special periodical 
literature, which is given or entrusted to the seminary by 
associations, the general library administration, the publication 
agency, and various other friends. All magazines and jour- 
nals which are of general scientific or literary interest to the 
University public are kept in the University reading room. 
Whatever is thought to pertain more especially to work 
going on in historical and political science is relegated to that 
department. Some few journals, for example The Nation and 
certain lil)rary bulletins, are taken in duplicate. In the eighth 
annual report of the president of the University, there is pub- 



New Methods of Study in History. 125 

lished a list of foreign exchanges. The last printed list of the 
periodical literature received by the University was issued in 
the Annual Rearister of 1880-81. 



The Historical Museum. 

At the present time^ the seminary library of historical and 
political science begins with relics of the stone age and ends 
with the newspaper. At one end of the room are the first collec- 
tions for an anthropological museum ; at the other is a bulletin- 
board for university news. A good foundation of an histor- 
ical museum was made last May by Mr. William Ellinger, 
formerly of Baltimore but now a resident of Arizona, who 
contributed a valuable collection of lacustrine relics from 
Neuchatel, — axes, spear-heads, knives, spindle-whorls, orna- 
ments representing the stone and bronze ages of Switzerland. 
ISTumerous utensils and missile weapons belonging to the stone 
age of Virginia have since been given by the Rev. Dr. Ran- 
dolph, formerly rector of Emanuel Church, Baltimore, now 
Assistant Bishop of Virginia. Memorials of the stone age of 
Maryland have been presented to the university by Colonel B. 
F. Taylor, of Kingsville, Baltimore county, near the site of 
"Joppa,^^ where the seminary found its first stone axe two 
years ago. This latter relic of the Maryland aborigines and 
an unearthed brick, which identified the site of the first court- 
house in Baltimore county, were for a long time the only 
objects of archaeological interest in the seminary-library. 
They led to a jocose observation in one of the Baltimore city 
papers that the Johns Hopkins University Museum consisted 
of an Indian hatchet and a brick-bat. This facetious remark, 
copied with pardonable malice by the press of Boston, was 
literally true. It characterized our museum about as cleverly 
as The Nation described the Johns Hopkins in 1876, when it 
was suggested that its trustees appeared to believe they could 
have a university in tents and a library in soap-boxes. 

But the library and the university have grown somewhat 
since that day and the museum also is destined to grow. 



126 New 3Iethods of Study in History. 

Although beginning in small ways, student-interest in archaeo- 
logical and historical collections is manifestly increasing. 
After the exhibition of the Ellinger collection in the Blunt- 
schli Library, three young men who had lived for many years 
in Rome began to enrich the museum of prehistoric relics 
with Etruscan pottery, vases from the ancient city of Veii, 
Roman lamps from the bottom of the Tiber, Christian lamps 
from the catacombs, a collection of coins with the image and 
superscription of the Cresars from Augustus to Romulus 
Augustulus. Symbols of the entire history of the Roman 
Empire and of prehistoric Europe have thus been added to 
the Indian hatchet and the brick-bat. Rome was not built in 
a day, nor yet is an anthropological museum; but the corner- 
stone is laid. 

The special advantages are great for the up-building in Bal- 
timore of a collection of artistic and literary memorials illus- 
trating the historical progress of our race. There are valuable 
Egyptian treasures in this city which, it is hoped, will some 
day be brought to the university. There are classic monu- 
ments, worthy of preservation in some museum of science. 
The Church, too, in this truly catholic city, has many artistic 
and literary symbols which it is the duty of science and 
religion alike to place in their proper historic connection for 
the instruction of clergy and students. 

It is of no small advantage in the up-building of such a 
museum for members of the Johns Plopkins University to 
have access to such a wonderful collection of early typograph- 
ical art, illuminated missals, breviaries, rare editions of the 
schoolmen, church fathers, and of the classics as the Stinnecke 
Library, collected by the late Bishop Whittingham, and now 
belonging to the diocese of Maryland. Great is the privilege 
now enjoyed of freely visiting such a rare private library as 
that of Mr. John W. McCoy, — a library rich beyond present 
descri[)tion in works of art-history, in collections of photo- 
graj)hs, prints, and engravings of tlie old masters. Great also 
arc the pleasure and profit of occajsionally visiting such a choice 



New Metliods of Study in History. 127 

gallery of modern painting as that owned by Mr. William T. 
Walters^ ^ or Mr. John W. Garrett. Inestimable is the bene- 
fit that a student may derive from the collections of the Pea- 
body Institute, its new museum of plastic art, its costly plates 
and rare engravings, in short, its entire literary apparatus. 
These things all belong to the existing vantage ground, to the 
municipal environment of Baltimore. 

iSTot the least of the practical advantages in the develop- 
ment of the museum-idea at the Johns Hopkins University is 
the proximity of Baltimore to Washington. The collections 
of the Smithsonian Institution and of the National Museum 
are within easy reach. Institutions and men often acquire 
strength by contact. A university in the environment of a 
national government which expends over three million dollars 
annually for scientific purposes, is well placed, even though it 
enjoys no great share in the distribution. The advantage lies 
in access to government collections, such as the National 
Museum and the Congressional Library, and in associations 
with government officials who are interested in university- 
work. It is no small thing for university-students to visit 
the National Museum under the instructive guidance of 
Major J. W. Powell, director of the Bureau of Eth- 
nology, and chief of the Geological Survey. It is also no 
small thing to have such a man address, one day the Historical 
Seminary upon Indian Sociology, and, the next day, the newly 
formed Archseological Society upon the subject of Indian Art. 
These things are accomplished facts, and they represent step- 
ping-stones for the up-building of the museum-idea in Balti- 
more. 

It is not proposed to limit the Historical Museum to 
American Archaeology, or to Prehistoric times, not yet to 



* Appreciative articles on Mr. Walter's remarkable collections of Japanese 
art and modern paintings, which were newly exhibited Feb. 26, 1884, appeared 
in the New York Tribune Feb. 27 and March 3, 10 ; in the Boston Weekly 
Advertiser Feb. 29, and in all the Baltimore papers Feb. 27, 1884. 



128 New Methods of Study in Histori/. 

Egyptian or any historic period, but to select a few things 
that are illustrative or typical of all times and of all phases 
of human progress. '^Denn das Einzelne ist audi ein Aus- 
druck des Granzen, in dessen Zusammenhang es seine Stelle hat, 
und ist es um so mehr als es typischer ist/' ^ 

Geographical Bureau. 

In addition to the Historical INIuseum (which in all proba- 
bility will soon be removed from the Seminary library and 
placed upon a broader basis) there is now developing a 
so-called Geographical and Statistical Bureau. Here maps, 
charts, diagrams, &c., of physical and historical geography 
have been collected together and conveniently classified for the 
use of University students and instructors. The atlases and 
smaller portfolios are kept upon slides, arranged one above 
the other in a tier, but with open fronts, so that the titles of 
the folios can be easily seen. Wall maps are rolled up, 
ticketed, and suspended upon hooks, whence they can be 
quickly removed for temporary use in any class-room of the 
University. Great masses of loose maps, like those published 
by the United States Engineer Corps, and by the Govern- 
ment Surveys, can be easily controlled by means of a large 
chart table, fitted up with drawers of different sizes, each 
drawer furnished with an ingenious appliance (invented in 
one of the Government Departments at Washington) for rais- 
ing a great mass of maps by means of an inserted slide which 
liberates the map beneath so that it can be drawn out without 
friction. In the geographical room are also collected the 
gazetteers, topographical dictionaries, histories of geography, 
treatises on comparative geography, Hitter's Erdkunde, 
Petcrmann's ]\Iitteilungen, the Avritings of Peschel, Guyot, 
Keclus, Behm, etc. ; the journals and bulletins of geographical 
societies ; books of explorations, travels, voyages, etc. Here 



' Droysen, Histori k, 24. 



New Methods of Study in History. 129 

also are the reports of the United States Coast and Geodetic 
Surveys. Reports of the various state and railroad surveys, 
of all the early military expeditions and government explora- 
tions, will gradually be added. 

In the Johns Hopkins University, physical and historical 
geography are made the basis of instruction in historical and 
political science. By the aid of the best maps, more espe- 
cially of relief maps, attention is called, in a course of class 
lectures, to the physical structure and conformation of 
various historic lauds ; to the influence of coast-lines, harbors, 
river-courses, plain and mountain, soil and climate, upon a 
nation's character and history. Such object-lessons concern- 
ing the physical structure of the earth's surface become an 
important means for teaching the outlines of universal his-- 
tory. For example, amid all the variation of political 
species and of the political geography of the Nile Valley, the 
valley itself remains to-day the basis of the Egyptian ques- 
tion. Not only ancient but modern history of Egypt becomes 
more intelligible from a consideration of its physical geog- 
raphy. The remotest past can be connected with the imme- 
diate present by such a bridge. England's occupation of 
Egypt seems not so far removed from the Roman conquest 
when we consider a map of the Mediterranean basin and 
study its relation to the eternal Eastern Question. The 
gradual discovery and political occupation of the world by 
the powers of Christendom, the heirs of old Rome, can be 
shown by a series of maps whereon the w^idening areas of 
geographical knowledge are sharply outlined. Students 
should learn from maps of African exploration and of 
circum-polar observations that the old w^ork of conquest 
is still going on. The relation of. European States to 
Western Africa and to the opening of the river Congo is 
much the same in principle as the relation of Spain, Por- 
tugal, France, and England to the opening of the new 
world. For most students comparative history, like com- 
parative geography, is almost an undiscovered country. The 
17 



130 New 3Iet]iods of Study in History. 

two sciences go hand in hand and can surely be fostered 
together. 

In the geographical bureau has lately begun an interesting 
study of the local geography of Baltimore, with a view to the 
preparation of a better physical and topographical map than 
any now in existence. This study, begun in the interests of 
the University Field Club by Mr. A. L. Webster (lately con- 
nected with the U. S. Geological Survey), will be for local 
geography what a study of town and parish records is for 
local institutions. The first step is to examine every thing 
that is already known about Baltimore geography, to collect 
all the maps that are available, then to discover fresh facts 
by exploration and to apply modern scientific methods to a 
new graphical representation of the entire field. There will 
be a certain valuable process of education for students in col- 
lecting new information for this map, and also in learning 
the practical arts of modern topography. 

Statistical Bureau. 

Adjoining the geographical room is a room devoted to 
statistics. Here are collected the census reports of the United 
States and of certain foreign countries and foreign cities. The 
])ublications of the Prussian Bureau of Statistics and of our 
own national bureau are fairly represented, together with the 
statistical documents published by the individual states and 
cities of tlie Union. Here is gathered whatever relates to the 
population and products of the earth ; national resources ; 
j)ublic domains; forests; crops; fisheries; railroads; canals; 
industries ; international expositions. Here also are the 
various files of ahuauacs, calendars, statesman's year-books, 
hand-books of statistics, &c. The possibilities of develop- 
ment for such a department are very great, if proper atten- 
tion is bestowed upon it. One lias only to examine the cata- 
logue of the Prussian ]5urcau of Statistics, with its 80,000 
volumes, to realize what this science means. 



New Methods of Study in History, 131 

The Historical and Political Science Association. 

The question is often asked, in what respect is the Histori- 
cal and Political Science Association different from the Semi- 
nary of Historical and Political Science. The answer is that 
the Seminary is, and always has been, the inner circle of uni- 
versity-students ; the Association is the Seminary in its asso- 
ciate capacity, which embraces an outer circle of honorary 
members. The Seminary is the active membership, the life- 
principle of the Association, which latter is maintained by 
natural selection and the survival of the fittest. 

The origin of the Historical and Political Science Associa- 
tion dates back to the 19th of December, 1877. It was a 
natural development of the original Historical Seminary, 
which had been in existence since the opening of the Univer- 
sity, and which was early spoken of as an Historical Associa- 
tion. The following extract from original records indicates 
the purpose of the new organization. '^ At the meeting of 
the Historical Association [Seminary], held December 15, 
[1877,] it was expressed as the sense of that body that there 
should be formed, under the auspices of the University, an 
organization which may take cognizance of other than his- 
torical questions and embrace among its members other than 
historical students.'^ 

The enlarged idea of the original Seminary was to form an 
association with students of political science, more especially 
with certain young lawyers in the city of Baltimore, who 
were engaged in the pursuit of this branch of learning. The 
scope of the Historical Association Avas to be widened into a 
kind of Staatsiuissenschaftlicher Verein, or Political Science 
Union like that in Heidelberg University, which organiza- 
tion had some influence upon the Baltimore Association. 
Students, professors and a few professional men, interested in 
historical and political studies, met together one evening each 
month in Hopkins Hall for the discussion of papers or com- 
munications which were thought to be of more general 



132 New Methods of Study in History. 

interest than those ordinarily prepared in connection with 
class lectures or seminary work. The Association was 
regarded as a public meeting of the Seminary, with its 
invited guests. 

The total membership originally comprised about a dozen 
graduate students and young instructors, some of whom were 
more especially devoted to the study of literature and phi- 
loloo^v. Amone: such associate members Avere Dr. Charles R. 
Lanman, now professor of Sanskrit in Harvard University ; 
Dr. Josiah Royce, lecturer on philosophy in the same institu- 
tion ; Dr. Maurice Bloomfield, now associate professor of 
Sanskrit, Johns Hopkins University; Mr. A. Duncan Savage 
(at one time associated with Cesnola in the Xew York ISIetro- 
politan Museum) ; Mr. Allan Marquand, the newly appointed 
professor of art history at Princeton College ; and several 
others. The membership gradually increased to about forty, 
through the election of certain young lawyers and other 
gentlemen of culture in the city of Baltimore. The attend- 
ance upon the monthly meetings of the Association sometimes 
ranged as high as fifty persons. The president of the Uni- 
versity has always been the acknowledged head of the Asso- 
ciation and occasionally presides at its meetings. The original 
secretary was Dr. Henry Carter Adams, now professor of 
political economy in Cornell and MMiigan Universities. The 
present director of the Seminary succeeded to the secretary's 
office in the Association, December 19, 1878. 

The character of the Association has changed with the 
character and size of the Seminary. Student-members have 
graduated and many former associate-members have given 
place to more active workers. The Seminary, or the inner 
circle, has gradually increased since 1876 from six or eight 
working members to twenty-five. No undergraduates, and 
no graduates who are not devoting their chief energies to 
Historical and Political Science in the Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, are now permitted to join the Seminary. The asso- 
ciate-members still retained, or chosen from time to time by 



New Methods of Study in History. 133 

this body, are naturally somewhat different from those formerly 
enrolled. The present custom is to regard as associates of 
the Seminary^ those whom it wishes to honor or those who 
have contributed to its published studies, or .public proeeed- 
ings, by an original paper or a reported address. Among 
such honorary associate members are Dr. Frank Austin 
Scott ; Hon. T. M. Cooley ; Professor Henry Carter Adams ; 
W. T. Brantly, Esq. (Baltimore); Professor William F. 
Allen ; Edward A. Freeman, LL. D. ; Professor Dr. H. von 
Hoist ; James Bryce, M. P. : Hon. Andrew D. White ; Dr. 
Wm. Hand Browne ; Professor Justin Winsor ; Professor E. 
Emerton (Harvard) ; Dr. Edward Channing (Harvard) ; Dr. 
Denman W. Poss (Cambridge, Mass.) ; Professor George S. 
Morris ; Dr. G. Stanley Hall ; Professor Alexander Johnston 
(Princeton) ; Hon. John H. B. Latrobe (President, Md. Hist. 
Soc.) ; John C. Pose (Asst. Professor, Univ. of Md.) ; Colonel 
William Allan (McDonogh Inst.) ; Eev. Dr. Philip Schaff 
(Union Theol. Sem.) ; Talcott Williams (The Press, Phila.) ; 
William B. Weeden (Providence, K. I.); W. E. Foster 
(Providence) ; Professor Jesse Macy (Iowa Coll.) ; Professor 
James K. Hosmer (St. Louis) ; Hon. Isaac D. Jones (Balto.) ; 
Rev. E. D. Neill (St. Paul) ; Joseph M. Worthington, M. D. 
(Annapolis) ; Jno. R. Quinan, M. D. (Balto.) ; W. T. Croas- 
dale (Balto.) ; Dr. S. A. Harrison (Easton) ; Henry E. Shep- 
herd (President, Coll. City of Charleston, S. C.) ; Professor 
James A. Harrison (Washington and Lee); Major J. W. 
Powell (^S^ational Museum, Washington) ; and several young 
lawyers and teachers in Baltimore. 

Contributions to the Association, 1877-79. 

Partial lists of contributions to the proceedings of the Asso- 
ciation, from December 19, 1877, to April 4, 1879, were printed 
in the Annual Reports of the Johns Hopkins University, for 
1878 (p. 56) and 1879 (p. 67); but a more complete list, taken 
from the original records, with the date of each communication, 



134 iVewj Metliods of Study in History, 

is given below. Xo mention is made of book-notices and 
reports npon historical and political journals, etc., which latter 
exercises form very essential features of both Seminary and 
Association meetino\s : 

The Village Communities of Ancient Germany and Mediaeval England, An 
Introduction to the Study of New England Towns and the Institutions 
of Local Self-Government in America. By II. B. Adams. December 
19, 1877. 

Tramps. A paper afterwards read before a public convention, in Baltimore, 
of Maryland gentlemen, for the discussion of the tramp-question. By 
H. C. Adams. December 19, 1877. 

The Economy of Cooperation. An Essay afterwards read before the Ameri- 
can Social Science Association at its meeting in Cincinnati. By H. C. 
Adams. January 11, 1879. 

Review of Dr. Woolsey's Theories concerning the Educational Power of the 
State. By D. C. Oilman. January 11, 1878. 

Qh'eek Cities. Fragments from Greek writers, illustrating the historical 
village community and the Federal Constitution of the Commonwealth 
of Greece. By A. D. Savage. January 11, 1878. 

The Tractatus Theologico-PoUticus of Spinoza. A Philosophical Essay in 
which Sjiinoza was presented as the champion of religious liberty. By 
JosiAH KoYCE. March 11, 1878. 

The Punitive Power of the State. An inquiry into the grounds of legal 
punisliment and an examination of the views advanced in Woolsey's 
Political Science. By William T. Brantly. March 11, 1878. 

Bribes in Greece. By W. J. Berry. March 11, 1878. 

Incidents of Historical Pesearch in the State ^Department at Washington. 
By Austin Scott. March 11, 1878. 

The Grand Jury System. By Judge T. M. Cooley. March 11, 1878. 

The Ordinance of 1787 for the Government of the North-Western Terri- 
tory. A paper showing the historic origin of this Act of National 
Legislation and the inqiortance of the ordinance as an element of Con- 
stitutional Law. By Austin Scott. March 29, 1878. 

The original Conception of the Town as an Institution. By W. F. Allen, 
of the University of Wisconsin. March 29, 1878. 

The Induen^-e of Alexander Hamilton in the Formation of the Constitution 
of the United States. By Joseph H. Tyler. March 29, 1878. 

The Maryland State Papers. A comnnuiication showing the wealth of his- 
torical materials now lying unpublished at Annapolis and in the library 
of the Maryland Historical Society. By H. B. Adams. March 29, 
1878. 

The Public School System ; an inquiry as to its Foundations. By D. C. 
Oilman. April 20, 1878. 



New Methods of Study in History. 135 

The School System of Connecticut, with Particular Reference to that of 
New Haven. By F. A. Walker, of Yale College. April 26, 1878. . 

The School System of Baltimore. By Hon. Geo. Wm. Beowx. April 
26, 1878. "' 

Are Boards of Arbitration desirable ? By George M. Sharp. April 26, 
1878. 

The Stone Age. A Eeview of Eecent Works on Prehistoric Archaeology. 
By H. B. Adams. October 11, 1878. 

The Swiss Lake-Dwellings. By C. R. Lanman. October 11, 1878. 

The De-population of Central Greece in the Post-Classical Period. By E. 
G. SiHLER. October 11, 1878. 

The National Archives. An explanation of the character and arrange- 
ment of the public documents and historical collections (letters, manu- 
scripts, etc.) belonging to the United States. By Austin Scott. Octo- 
ber 11, 1878. 

A Study of German Social Democracy. By A. Marqtjand. .November 15, 
1878. 

A Eeview of the Question, "Was Maryland a Eoman Catholic Colony?" 
By H. B. Adams. November 15, 1878. 

Eecent Complications in the School System of New Haven. By D. C. Gil- 
man. November 15, 1878. 

Notes on Niebuhr's Life and Works. By E. G. Sihler. November 15, 
1878. 

Lieber's " Eeminiscences of Niebuhr." By D. C. Oilman. November 15, 
1878. 

Primitive Aryan Mythology from the Standpoint of Indian Literature. By 
M. Bloomfield. December 19, 1878. 

Animistic Religion an Excrescence, not a Germ, of Vedic Religion. By 
C. R. Lanman. December 19, 1878. 

The Boundary Controversy between Maryland and Virginia. By E. Good- 
man. December 19, 1878. 

Letter from Dr. Wm. Hand Browne upon Catholic Toleration in Maryland. 
December 19, 1878. 

The first public Proposal of a Constitutional Convention for the United 
States. By Austin Scott. December 19, 1878. 

Methods of Historical Inquiry as Pm'sued at German Universities. A dis- 
cussion of Seminaries and Seminary Libraries. By H. Von Holst. 
January 24, 1879. 

Maryland's Ratification of the Federal Constitution. By A. Scott. Feb- 
ruary 28, 1879. 

The Position of Socialism i^ the Historical Development of Political Econ- 
omy. By H. C. Adams. February 28, 1879. 

Moral Insanity as a Cause of Crime. By C. W. Nichols. February 28, 
1879. 



136 New Methods of Study in History, 

The Problem for Political Economy in the United States. By H. C. Adams. 

April 4, 1879. 
Attic Colonization. By E. G. Sihler. April 4, 1879. 
Methods of Historical Instruction as Pursued at Brown University. By 

Professor J. L. Dimax. April 4, 1879. 

All subsequent contributions to the Historical and Political 
Science Association are noted in the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity Circulars, the publication of which began in December, 
1879. Abstracts of the more important papers are there to 
be found and mention is made of most of the minor communi- 
cations. No other records of the Association after October 
23, 1879, have been preserved. A set of these abstracts has 
been arranged, with other printed matter, in a seminary scrap 
book. With the present year (1884) was instituted the office 
of a rotating secretary, serving for a single meeting. This 
institution was adopted from Professor Paul Fredericq's sem- 
inary in Liege, and by him from Conrad's seminary in Halle. 
The advantages of the practice are the greater variety and 
interest resulting from the reports of rival secretaries, in 
addition to valuable training for students themselves. The 
reports are written by the various secretaries upon uniform 
paper and are duly arranged in the scrap-book, together with 
the printed abstracts of the proceedings as revised by the 
director of the seminary for the University Circulars. The 
basis of the printed abstract is usually furnished by the con- 
tributor of the reported paper. 



The diafj^rnm ujwn tlie opposite page, illustrating the Seminary of His- 
toriciil and Political Science, was drawn by Edward Ingle. 



Seminary of Historical and Political Science. 






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A. Seminary Table with New Books and Current Literature ; — 
B. Lecture Rooms; — C. History Bureau (Dr. Adams);— D. News- 
paper Room (Mr. Shaw) ; — E. Economy Bureau (Dr. Ely) ; — F. 
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G. Statistics, Lavatory, Lift, Stairway to Library; — H. Blunt- 
sclili MSS. and Portrait; Lieber MSS. ;— I. Stairway to Library 
and Hopkins Hall ; — J. Alcove of Ancient History ; — K. Alcove 
of General History;— L. Alcove of Economics; — M. Alcove of 
Administration ; — N. Alcove of Political Science ; — O. Alcove of 
International Law; — P. Alcove of State Laws and State His- 
tory ;— Q. Alcove of English, German, Swiss, French and Roman 
Law;-R. Librarian's Desk (Mr. Fifield);— S. Desks of Fellows 
and Graduate Scholars;— T. Revolving Cases; — U. Library Bu- 
reau, Journals, bound vols. ;—V. Church History; — W. Hat and 
Cloak Room ;— X. Public Documents, U. S. ; — Y. Historical Mu- 
seum ; — Z. Pamphlets, Miscellany and five Bulletin Boards ; — 
a. Newspaper Bureau and Bulletin Board for Clippings; — b. Card 
Catalogue (Subjects and Authors). 



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3PTJBXiIC^TI02<rS OI" THE 

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 



I. American Journal of Mathematics. 

J. J. SYiiVESTEB, Editor. Quarterly. 4to. Yolmne VI in progress. |5 per 
volume. ^ 

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I. Reivisen, Editor. Bi-monthly. 8vo. Volume VI in progress. $3 per 
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III. American Journal of Philology. 

B. L. GiEDEESLEEVE, Editor. Quarterly. 8vo. Volume V in progress, 
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Including the Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory. H. N. Martin, Editor, 
and W. K. Brooks, Associate Editor. 8vo. Volume III in progress. 
$5 per volume. 

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H. B. Adams, Editor. Monthly. 8vo. Volume II in progress. $3 per 
volume. 

VI. Contributions to Logic. 

C. S. Peirce, Editor. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Publishers. 

VII. Johns Hopkins University Circulars. 

Containing reports of scientific and literary work in progress in Baltimore. 
4to. Vol. I, $5 ; Vol. II, $2 ; Vol. Ill in progress. $1 per year. 

VIII. Annual Report. 

Presented by the President to the Board of Trustees, reviewing the opera- 
tions of the University during the past academic year. 

IX. Annual Register. 

Giving the list of officers and students, and stating the regulations, etc., of the 
University. Published at the dose of the Academic year. 

X. The Journal of Physiology. 

Edited by Professor Michael Foster, of Cambridge, Eng., is published 
with the aid of the Johns Hopkins University. Volume IV in progress, 
8vo. $5 per volume. 



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JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES 

IN 

Historical and Political Science 

HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor 



History is past Politics and Politics present History — Freeman 



SECOND SERIES 
I -II 

METHODS. 

OF 

HISTORICAL STUDY 



By HERBERT B. ADAMS, Ph. D. 



BALTIMOEE 

N. Murray, Publication Agent, Johns Hopkins Univeksitt 

January and February, 1884 



Johns Hopkins University Studies 

IN 

Historical and Political Science. 

HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor. 



History is past Politics and Politics present History. — Freeman. 



PROSPECTUS OF THE SECOND SERIES. 

A Second Scries of University Studies, comprising about 500 pages, in twelve 
monthly monographs devoted to Insiiiuiions, Economics, and Politics^ is hereby 
offered to subscribers at the former rate, $3. As before, a limited number of 
Studies will be sold separately, although at higher rates than to subscribers for 
the whole set. The March number, on " The Past and the Present of Political 
Economy," by Dr. Richard T. Ely, of the Johns Hopkins University, is now 
in press. The April number will contain Professor James K. Hosmer's study 
of "Samuel Adams, the Man of the Town Meeting." In May will appear 
Professor Henry Carter Adams' " History of Taxation in the U. S.," (a revision 
of his doctor's thesis, J. H. U., 1878). The order of subsequent papers is not 
yet fully determined, but the series will advance upon the institutional and 
economic lines already indicated in previous announcements for 1884. 

The very limited number of complete sets of the First Series now remaining 
in the hands of the Publication Agency of the University compels the announce- 
ment that no further subscriptions for that volume can be received at the orig- 
inal rate of $3. A few sets, bound in cloth, will be sold at $5 net, by the 
Publication Agency only. The future interests of the work represented by this 
journal will require the Agency to give preference, in disposing of the remain- 
der of the First Series, to libraries, specialists, and other patrons who are 
likely to prove continuous subscribers to the Studies. 

Scientific communications should be addressed to the Editok; all business 
matters, subscriptions, questions touching exchanges, etc., to the Publication 
Agency, (N. Murray), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Mary- 
land. 

Subscriptions will also be received, or single copies furnished by G. P. Put- 
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pies, Upham & Co. (Old Corner Book-Store) Boston ; Porter & Coates, 
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; CONTENTS OF FIRST SERIES. 

Tho First Series of University Studies, originally announced as twelve 
monographic numbers embracing 300 to 400 pages, is now complete. It com- 
prises 470 pages and twenty distinct papers collected in twelve special groups. 
Subscribers have also been furnished with a complete Index to the first volume 
of the Studies and with a general title-page, including the special sub-heading 
Local Institutions, which may serve to characterize the contents of the first vol- 
ume, now ready for binding. An examination of the List of Studies in the 
First Series, herewith appended, will show the lines of investigation which 
have already been opened by the Johns Hopkins University in the field of 
American Institutional History. The Studies will advance from Local Gov- 
ernment to City and State Government, and will enter the domain of National 
Institutions. University study of American Economics will also advance 
along these lines. 

I. An Introduction to American Institutional History. By Edward 

A. Freeman, D.C.L., LL.D. With an account of Mr. Freeman's Visit 
to Baltimore, by the Editor. 

II. The Germanic Origin of New England Towns. Eead before the 

Harvard Historical Society, May 9, 1881. By H. B. Adams, Ph. D. 
Heidelberg, 1876 ; Associate Professor of History, Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity. With Notes on Co-operation in University Work, 

III. Local Government in Illinois. First published in the Fortnightly 

Keview. By Albert Shaw, A. B. Iowa College, 1879.— Local Gov- 
ernment in Pennsylvania. Kead before the Pennsylvania Historical 
Society, May 1, 1882. By E. K. L. Gould, A. B. Victoria University, 
Canada, 1882. Price 30 cents. 

IV. Saxon Tithingmen in America. Read before the American Antiqua- 

rian Society, October 21, 1881. By H. B. Adams. 

V. Local Government in Michigan, and the Northwest. Eead before the 

Social Science Association, at Saratoga, September 7, 1882. By E. W. 
Bemis, a. B. Amherst College, 1880. Price 25 cents. 

VI. Parish Institutions of Maryland. Published in abridged form in the 

Magazine of American History. By Edward Ingle, A. B. Johns 
Hopkins University, 1882. With Illustrations from Parish Records. 
Pynce 40 cents. 

VII. Old Maryland Manors. Read before the Historical and Political 
Science Association, March 30, 1888. Published also in Lewis Mayer's 
"Ground Rents in Maryland," (Cushings & Bailey, Baltimore, 1883). 
By John Johnson, A. B. Johns Hopkins University, 1881. Price 30 

C€7lis. 

VIII. Norman Constables in America. Read before the New England 
Historic, Genealogical Society, February 1, 1882. By H. B. Adams. 

IX-X. Village Communities of Cape Anne and Salem. From the His- 
torical Collections of the Essex Institute. By H. B. Adams. 

XI. The Genesis of a New England State (Connecticut.) Read before 

the Historical and Political Science Association, April 13, 1883. By 
Alexander Johnston, A. M. Rutgers College, 1870,- Professor of Politi- 
cal Economy and Jurisprudence at Princeton College. Price 30 ce?iis. 

XII. Local Government and Free Schools in South Carolina. Read 
in part before the Historical Society of South Carolina, December 15, 
1882. By B. J. Ramage, A. B. Price 40 cents. 



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